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Re: Sealer in large gap?
leadfoot #157058 October 18th 2007 10:44 pm
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 188
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Keeper of the Book of the Great Legend
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 188
Hey Ram:
Get some decent seam sealer. NOT PURE SILICONE, one of the latex ones is better for this. then, get some aluminum flashing at home depot or someplace. Cut a piece to fit, whatever shape you need it to be, put it in place, drill some 1/8th diameter holes wherever you think it will help hold the patch in, put some seam sealer around the edge of the hole, (and DO NOT BE STINGY WITH IT) then, put your patch in place, and pop rivet it in place. (sheet metal screws will work too, but they stick up further.) If you really wanna make it permanent, and a little prettier, after all this drives, cut the sealer flush, rough up the aluminum with some 40 grit, along with the metal around the patch, and lay some bondo-glass (one brand is "Gorilla hair") on it smoothing it out best as you can. You wont ever have to worry about THAT hole again..lol
hope this helps,
God bless,
Preacher

p.s.: if you got bolt holes you need to fill, old biker trick from the 60's: you need an old fashioned soldering iron. (the big kind) some 000 steel wool, and some plumbing solder. (acid core) . Clean around the hole. Make a ball of steel wool that will fit in it and "blossom" just a little on both sides. Heat the wool with the soldering iron, and soon as it will melt solder, lay into it with the solder...fill it UP....let it dry, file it down, bingo, no hole no more..
(we used to do this to fill bolt holes in fenders before the days of custom bike parts all over the place)

Re: Sealer in large gap?
Preacher #157068 October 18th 2007 11:45 pm
Joined: Mar 2007
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pooh-bah
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pooh-bah
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Ok, here's an overview picture of the 2nd of the pictures I posted earlier. This gap is at the base of the door post.

[Linked Image]

The only explanation I can make for it is they made it so the welders could tack down the floor pan onto the brace which runs accross the rear of the sill. They could have use a couple of small holes rather than a huge gap though!!

I decided to edit this and add a picture of why I am working on this in the first place - the rear door seal leaked and the floor got wet and rotted the wood flooring.

[Linked Image]

(this is an older picture - the seam sealer is still in place) It's not severely rusted, but when I scraped some of the paint off adjacent to the little rusty gouges in the paint, the rust had spread a bit to either side under the otherwise solid looking paint, calling for drastic action!


Last edited by Ram4ever; October 19th 2007 12:02 am.

-It's been such a LONG TIME... BlueShift>> 1981 Dodge Ram B250 Custom Sportsman Maxi Van


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It's what you learn after you know it all, that counts...

Are you living to work, or working to live?

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Re: Sealer in large gap?
Ram4ever #157093 October 19th 2007 8:41 am
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carpal tunnel
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carpal tunnel
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While you are in there you really need to remove all of that nasty pink house insulation.That is also holding dampness against your upper body sheet metal.....

.........Wookee


Its a "Van Thing"
A life style you have to LIVE to understand!

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Re: Sealer in large gap?
Ram4ever #157095 October 19th 2007 8:42 am
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 28,125
Madman!
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Madman!
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I've seen that before. For some reason I thing they were all that way with the big gap. I wonder if they used the same floor pan and changed the door support at some time. Yours looks like it may have been damaged at some point, but it's not that bad. you can use nearly any of the ideas above to fill it. I personally wold tack weld an "L" shaped piece of sheet metal over the hole, seam seal it inside and undercoat it on the bottom. I would be willing to bet the rear tires spray a lot of crud right at that point.


Ken Schwarz
Tricky Truckers, N.J.
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Manse Vans, Finland
Rebel Vanners, N.J. "USA"
Toopa Sinner Tribe, N.C.

www.showvans.com

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Re: Sealer in large gap?
Superbeast #157198 October 19th 2007 3:39 pm
Joined: Mar 2007
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pooh-bah
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pooh-bah
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I'm very curious what the rest of the floor pan will look like as I work my way forward with replacing the floor. As far as I can tell, the only part that got wet was at the rear doors.

I didn't see *any* evidence of mechanical damage around the door post areas; keep in mind that the phosphoric acid that I'm using turns the metal either a stark white or a jet black, so everything's about 20x uglier looking than it really is. You can see both extremes of coloration along the floor pan seam. I didn't bother to clean up any of the stains and dust from the decomposed plywood yet either, so everything looks brown.

I still don't understand why a conversion van would have all those deep linear gouges through the paint on the floor; it's almost like the van was used for carrying heavy things for a while, then was converted. Anyone ever seen anything like that before? I'm debating whether there may be more rust creep hidden under the paint... should I strip it *all* off?

I think I'll try what you suggested for the gaps and tack weld a couple of strips of metal in, then seal them.

It still boggles my mind that Dodge would have jammed these huge wads of Sealer in the gaps rather than closing them up more conventionally, especially when there's ample evidence of manual MIG welding in those very spots.

Clear skies!



-It's been such a LONG TIME... BlueShift>> 1981 Dodge Ram B250 Custom Sportsman Maxi Van


[Linked Image]

It's what you learn after you know it all, that counts...

Are you living to work, or working to live?

[Linked Image]

Learning from my own mistakes is good, learning from yours would be much better! [Linked Image]
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