When I was looking for paint and body work I went to the local store that sells automotive paint and asked them for recommendations. They probably know everyone in the business in your area. One point that they made was that you should look around at local cars shows and when you see a nice restoration job ask the owner who did it. Word of mouth is really the way to go. Find someone who's happy with the work that was done for them.

I feel the same way you do and am using lead-free body solder (from Eastwood) on my roadster. I bought the kit for around $200 and will just use a small self-contained propane bottle-torch from Home Depot. Since that stuff doesn't have lead you can sand it without worry and get your panels nice and smooth. If your damage isn't too extensive you could probably do the same.

Just get the metal back as close to right as possible before using any filler.

This in the morning e-mail from Eastwood. Thought of this thread.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1494&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=688&iSubCat=1494

Try a shop that builds street rods. some of them still use lead. I agree with the others nothing wrong with bondo if it's used correctly. All body fillers can be abused.