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Sealer in large gap?
#157005 October 18th 2007 7:37 pm
Joined: Mar 2007
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pooh-bah
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pooh-bah
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Hi, I'd like to ask some advice of those of you who've been in the van bodywork business for a while.

I was working on the interior floor of my '81 dodge maxi van last night hitting some areas with phosphoric acid prior to painting, and I noticed some of the seam sealer at the joint between the channeled floor pan and the flat wall pans was bit loose. Suspicious of this, I pried it up and found a thin coating of tight orange surface rust under it, [Linked Image] so I scraped it all out on both sides of the van and etched those areas as well.

I scraped the whole way back to the base of the rear door support posts, and to my amazement, after scraping out all of the sealer there, there was an enormous gap at the base of each post - nearly 3/8"x3", [Linked Image] which had been filled with the factory sealer. (The factory sealer looks like a white butyl rubber caulk, (at best) and at worst, it might even be plain bathtub caulking - it sure feels like it!)

On Nate's advice I recently bought some high quality brush-on seam sealer from Eastwood, but I don't believe it's thick enough to fill such large gaps... should I use some butyl rubber to fill the largest portion of the gaps? What sort of treatment do you think I should apply to the underside of the gaps (which would be outdoors) -which appear to be bare of *any* treatment to me.

Thanks for your assistance!


-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?

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Learning from my own mistakes is good, learning from yours would be much better! [Linked Image]
Re: Sealer in large gap?
Ram4ever #157010 October 18th 2007 7:50 pm
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without a pic it's hard to see what you got goin on there
but from what i'm hearing you may want to cut some strips
of sheetmetal to cover the "gap" (like a long band-aid)
quality seam sealer of some tuff stuff
brush on some to the gap, lay the sheetmetal strip over the opening
and brush a couple coats over the top
(don't try to pile up seam sealer too high it won't cure completely)do it in coats, it don't hurt to even let it set over night between them
there is alot of car building going on with "no weld panels"
and it's all put together with seam sealer/glue
i did a door panel the other day...
well ok i did a window regulator the other day
but had to remove the outter door panel to get at it!
the whole thing was glued together
-
most important is remove any old rust before doing anything
and it'll last a long time

Re: Sealer in large gap?
leadfoot #157013 October 18th 2007 7:55 pm
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pooh-bah
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pooh-bah
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Sorry, I figured this might have been a well known issue... I'll go take some pictures so you can see just what Dodge did. I'm amazed they wouldn't have done a better job of fitting the sheet metal.

-I'll be back shortly!

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]
Re: Sealer in large gap?
leadfoot #157016 October 18th 2007 7:59 pm
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 2,298
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veteran
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I had a 76 ford that had a problem like yours i did a chop glass filler and a glaze over it never did rust there the rest well lol.


Member of Lead Foot Trucker West Coast Chapter Pea On [Linked Image]
Re: Sealer in large gap?
weird Harold #157021 October 18th 2007 8:17 pm
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Old flattened beer cans, crazy glue, silicone then seam sealer was the way used car dealers did it....With the price of scrap metal, it is probably done now with wads of paper, duct tape and Bondo...lol

Seriously, send pics, it sounds to me like something else is going on, like maybe collision damage ??????


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Re: Sealer in large gap?
Ram4ever #157023 October 18th 2007 8:21 pm
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pooh-bah
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pooh-bah
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Ok, here's a picture of each side. It's a pretty substantial gap. The dark areas are literally the outdoors. You can also see a sloppy welder's MIG wire left behind... I've found several of these so far.

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

What do you think?

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]
Re: Sealer in large gap?
Ram4ever #157025 October 18th 2007 8:24 pm
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,632
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Wood Carver, Supreme
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Like Harold mentioned earlier, glass it and work from there!
B.W. smile


"Vannin'....It's More than a Passin' Fad!"
Re: Sealer in large gap?
Ram4ever #157026 October 18th 2007 8:25 pm
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pooh-bah
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pooh-bah
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BTW - The chunks of material in the 2nd picture are some of the seam sealer I mentioned. Sorry I didn't clean it up much before taking the pictures; the acid is still a bit wet which makes it looks pretty ugly.

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]
Re: Sealer in large gap?
Ram4ever #157033 October 18th 2007 8:43 pm
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 6,115
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Posts: 6,115
dammm man thats ugly
some good bondo hair/fiberglass will be more cost effective
add some metal where ya can
seam sealer aint cheap stuff, and not for stuff that large IMO
but being a floor area and most likely covered it doesn't need
to be "finished" looking, just solid and water tight
-
that bottom pic looks like one violent cut
can you post a pic of the area it's in ?
(like the whole floor pic to have an idea where this is at
and how much of it)


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