Project "My Happy Mess"

[litew8]

Thanks man! We have some of the brushable type (not Eastwood) sealer that we considered using on the rocker panel front corners - to give it a factory look, but decided to just go ahead and use the same all around instead. If it'd adhear proper, we may still put some of the brushable type on those corners to conceal the welds a little more and put brush marks in to make it look a little more factory. The stuff I used above was a heavy bodied seam sealer, but it was pretty fluid when applied. Smearing it was easy, but had the potential of getting messy fast if too much was applied. The tape worked out good to keep it off of areas not needing sealer, and helped a lot to keep the surrounding areas clean. It's hard to tell by the pictures because the stuff is black/shinny - but it's all pretty smooth and should cover with primer/paint nicely and not be noticeable. We didn't care so much about the areas that you won't be able to see when the truck is assembled. Like the bottom of the windshield/firewall crevice, we put alot in there and it got in the groove/corner very nice and filled in great. I remember tearing the old stuff out, it was full of putty like sealer. This new stuff is alot better looking and should last a long time. All areas where sealer was applied, were scuffed first.

[litew8]

One of The Fixer's side projects.
See what happens when you don't floss?
This is a high school mascot from the early 70's
The Fixer is going to reconstruct the bear's teeth and tounge.
This is the rival's team mascot, but we're nice to help out.

[litew8]

Couple hours worth of work today, we got the drip rails sealed. Pics later.

[Low Elco]

It's a PITA, ain't it? Congrats on passing the step!

[litew8]

Thanks! Yeah, it's a PITA. The reason being - the vertical drip rail behind the doors. Not enough room there and my finger isn't tiny. The vertical drip rail actually gets narrower the further down you go, I had some nasty seams to deal with, and now they're covered.

The black - it's hard to tell but it is smooth and sealed nice.

Before:






After:











Self-leveling sealer - Due to the angle towards the cab on the inside of the rail,
we had to fill it up about 1/2 way for the stuff to level out nice and ensure the seam
got sealed properly.

[72KAY20]

Looks great! Very nice job on those drip rails.

[Low Elco]

I had the self leveling but didn't trust it. Just got enough in to kinda smoothly coat the actual seam. For what it's worth I like yours better. Looks great!
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[oldman3]

Nice job....Jim

[litew8]

Thanks all I promise, paint coming soon!

[litew8]

Here's a few more pics of the self-leveling 3M seam sealer.
Passenger side and front shots from the other day -

[Dieselwrencher]

Looking good man! My body man didn't put much time into mine. Too late now.

[Mike Bradbury]

That came out great, So did the 3M heavy bodied seam sealer cure better than the 1997 stuff? Is it supposed to be a two step process or could you have used just the self leveling product? How did you get the self leveling sealer to stay in place on the vertical or did you have to dam it up at the end of the driprail?

[litew8]

Thanks!

Yeah, the 3M heavy bodied sealer cured quicker than the 15 year old FUSOR 123. We did go back the next day or two and checked the beads of FUSOR we tested on cardboard and it did harden up really good, the tacky we felt before was gone. So it seems it is still good after 15 years, just took a little longer to harden. If we were to have used the old sealer and wanted to paint right after sealing, it wouldn't have worked - and/or it may not have cured entirely at all. I bought the 3M stuff for peace of mind.

Two step process - I think you are refering to me using two different types of sealers. Self-leveling for the horizontal areas, and heavy bodied for the vertical. The self-leveling didn't come out like water, but it would have ran down the vertical parts if I wanted it too. Not sure it would have "leveled" itself out correctly going down the vertical parts - since gravity wouldn't be pulling it down to flatten it like it does on the horizontal areas. That's why I chose to use the heavy bodied instead for the vertical areas and just smear it on/in.

We did dam up the drip rail right where it startes to go vertical so that the self-leveling wouldn't run away, but we started where the curve begins and it didn't want to take off and pretty much just stayed in place. It created a bulge, but I compensated the end with the heavy bodied so that it leveled out and down. I think they say if you let the self leveling sit for a long while before primer, it'll need scuffed also.

If I want to try and perfect it even more, I could go back with some very fine sand paper - scuff it (the heavy bodied sealer) down to where I'd think it needs knocked down a little,
and reapply (skim) some heavy body over the top before priming.

On the front you can see where the peices of metal come together and there's an exposed seam - where water usually runs down into the window channel and rust - I put some self leveling in between on the top and it sealed nice. You can see it in some of the shots. Like this one:



A little blurry, but I'm talking about the front/left in the pic.

[litew8]

The Fixer working on the doors today.

Spot blasted the rusty areas -














Then he decided to go full force professional and break out the BIG gun.

[Low Elco]

WHAT is that? Shoot able mud in a caulk gun? Awesome! I welded up any seam near the windows on my cab. Shmooove. Looks great!
Posted via Mobile Device

[Dieselwrencher]

Bondo in a cocking tube huh? Looking good man. You taking this truck to Good Guy's?

[litew8]

3M™ Dynamic Mixing Gun - Pneumatic, 05846

He's giving that door we fixed w/dent earlier attention. Not sure I'll make any shows, but we are shooting for July 4th.

[litew8]

3M Dynamic Mixing System - 90 Second Highlight...

[litew8]

Are we having fun yet?
More door maintenance pics/updates.

Man, I'm glad this is the passenger door getting all this filler
and not my driver's door. It was dinged up pretty good,
but The Fixer has it under control. Have I ever mentioned
that he's not a guy




Spot blasting the bottom, with the !

This is the door with the worst surface rust.
People tell me my truck will be inside of a trailer anyway.
They'll be surprised to wake up to smoke and [a] tire mark in front of
their home after I'm finished.




















Here are pics of the two seams along the top drip rail I mentioned
the other day. Self-leveling sealer dabbed in. Exciting!

[Mike Bradbury]

s that "gun grade" bondo? waht is the working time with that stuff?

[litew8]

Not "Bondo". It's 3M body filler. Working time is 3-4 minutes.
Stuff dries rock hard. Some good quality filler.

[litew8]

3M Dynamic Mixing System - 6 Minute Training...

[litew8]

3M Dynamic Mixing System - Finishing Glaze...

[litew8]

wow, they don't make embedding youtube videos easy on these threads.
I had to recode the html string to get them to work.
The last video is distorted in quality a little due to me forcing it.

[litew8]

Passenger door maintenance/update cont.

Knocked down -










Picture puzzle for the Pit Boss. Name this intersection.