Gutter Talk?

[hoser]

Hi guys its time to replace the gutter caulk on my 72 GMC any tips and tricks to doing this, just looking at it I assume you remove the old stuff (thinking 4" wire wheel on my grinder) treat the rust, prime, caulk it with regular body caulking?

Thanks in advance for the tips

[jhow66]

Go to napa and get a tube of seam sealer and then use your caulk gun.

[stueber68]

Anybody actually gone and cut this off themselves to make a smooth line? Any tips?

[subtle71]

My body guy just repaired mine. From what I saw when I stopped by occassionally, he cleaned the area, then used POR-15 to seal it then glazed.

Dean

[Classic Heartbeat]

I used a product called Duramix 4227, self leveling, flexible seam sealer. It comes with a mixing tip and is aplied in the bottom of the gutter. It also requires its own calking gun. You apply a good 3/8" bead in the gutter and it will level itself out sealing the gutter and giving a nice finish to paint. Of coarse you want to wire wheel and treat any rust befor applying. WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[BigMike]

stueber68 - If you are in an area that gets rain I would highly reccomend NOT doing this as rain will come in the cab via the tops of the doors. That is what the rain gutters are for, to prvent rain from entering the cab as well as not getting a waterfall when you open the door in the rain.

Back in the day when I was dumb and full of....Well, let's just say I was dumb. I shaved a set off of a 67 for a friend, then did another buddies 76. It was bad, real bad, when it rained...Thankfully the 76 was screwed on so all I had to do was redrill the welded holes and remount it. The 67 was not so fortunate . I had to modify it with the same gutters as on the 76 trucks...Didn't look right, but it worked.

Just thought I'd share that with you in case you do not have a "Show Only" truck and live where you get occasional rain.....You'll get wet.

Mike

[67ChevyRedneck]

What has everyone done about rust between these two seams?

[stueber68]

Big Mike, Thanks for the advice that is exacty the kind of info I need. Idid have another ideal for doing this though. What I was goin to do was cut it off and reuse what was above the doors and reuse it by putting it inside of the opening where it where it was so it will still have a little bit of a lip and also make the gap between the door and the roof smaller. Really don't know if this will work or not but I have a junk cab to experiment with. will see what happens. Once again, really appreciate the advice.

[hoser]

I was going to dig out my spot blaster for the area in the pic I attached and spot blast the rust out its only surface rust, then treat the bare metal area with rustmort prime then the seam sealer, I have vertical areast to do on this project so a self leveling product might get tricky heh.


The inside of the gutter has no rust I was suprised to see how good it was their is only a few bad areas, I tried taking pics in the shop but the lighting is all wrong I will try to get something better in the sun if it ever comes back out heh

Where are you guys buying your body stuff I need some Evercoat Kitty Hair and Evercoat Extreme Rage I will price it locally but they are usually real high on everything so I been searching online...
http://www.ekomarine.com/e/Evercoat/



Thanks again for the help

[FRENCHBLUE72]

If you shave the gutters it will rain inside and out.... I have heard of people making the gutters smaller in profile(never seen it though)..

[purple gas]

To get the old stuff out. Mine was really cracked, and I found using a screwdriver, getting underneith it and tapping it out worked really good. KInda like chisseling out wood, if you know what I mean. As for shaving the gutters, it's a MAJOR job. to do it right takes a lot of serious body work.

[72 longhorn BB]

Just surfing and thought about adding a question.

I have seen alot of partially rusted seems in this area. Heck, mine are going to have to be done just to give me peace of mind.

the problem is that over time this sealer cracks. All sealer will crack, giving way to water deterioration.

I was thinking of getting a spray wand and trying to find access points to the inner roof so I could shoot the inner side of the seem with POR15, then trying to drip some down inbetween the roof/gutter seem and painting the gutter itself with POR15 before re-sealing/priming/painting it.

I share your thoughts about never wanting to have to deal with that again.

I want the area to be watertight as a ducks a**.

I think Ziebart has some bendable spray wands that can get inside body contours. I just had my burban done in october. I'll ask them, since we are talking about it.

If anyone has had experience or success with sealing the seem from both sides, it would be greatly appreciated.

My 2 cents.

[Woody]

I have used an epoxy putty that POR-15 sells on one of my 2 trucks. It has held up well for the last year. I cleaned out the old, POR'ed the gutter, then formed missing parts of the seam and gutter front out of the putty. It has been out in the weather ever since. No paint, Yes the POR has faded but the putty has not rusted around it and came out pretty good for a gutter that 2-3" of the front edge had rusted off completely.

On my 69, I cleaned everything then POR-15'ed, Then sealed with 3M Seam Sealer (from NAPA), primed and painted, That was several years ago (+5) and it has NOT been out in the weather at all. The seam sealer has cracked in places and I wish I had used something else to seal the gutter. I have thought about using the epoxy putty as a seam sealer, but have not tried it as of yet.

[hoser]

Originally Posted by Woody

I have used an epoxy putty that POR-15 sells on one of my 2 trucks. It has held up well for the last year. I cleaned out the old, POR'ed the gutter, then formed missing parts of the seam and gutter front out of the putty. It has been out in the weather ever since. No paint, Yes the POR has faded but the putty has not rusted around it and came out pretty good for a gutter that 2-3" of the front edge had rusted off completely.

On my 69, I cleaned everything then POR-15'ed, Then sealed with 3M Seam Sealer (from NAPA), primed and painted, That was several years ago (+5) and it has NOT been out in the weather at all. The seam sealer has cracked in places and I wish I had used something else to seal the gutter. I have thought about using the epoxy putty as a seam sealer, but have not tried it as of yet.

The truck is 33 years old this is the first time the gutters have been touched, I will assume todays body sealer is better than the original, this truck has sat outside most of the 33 years in northern Illinois weather if my repair last another 10 years I will be happy, chances are I will have to paint it again or touch it up because the truck will be used as a daily driver not a trailer queen, my son will be driving it some also he gets his license this April if he is anything like me he will he the wheeling bug and be bashing it off road like I use to, then again who knows he might get the bug to show and shine, time will tell.

Thanks for the replies I like your guys ideas like the rust proofing, I have a undercoating rustproofing gun setup I bought years ago from JC whitney it works well I think I will see if I can access between the roof by removing the cargo light on the back of the cab, if not I will drill some holes that the head liner will cover and access through that area, I rather look at a hole than rust heh

My hats off to the guys that removed the gutters that had to be a bunch of work since the gutters are a place for the cab parts to come together to be welded at the factory. Any pics of this mod or a truck with them removed?

Any more thoughts?