Replacing Seam Sealer
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Just wondering what the majority of people do when it comes to trying to replicate factory seam sealer. Ive tried the 3M tips as have many others at my shop with little success. I don’t know if the guy that invented them slept with the caulking gun for a few years to be able to do that or what….anyhow what do you guys think
Any particular seams (door skin ,roof rails etc)? I think product selection is a huge factor. I have about 5 different seam sealers at work for different finishes and drying time. I just use the normal tips, acid brushes, masking tape, water, thinner and/or my finger for tooling it.
I don’t use seam sealer ofter, usually the body guys will tape it off, apply it, smear it and it never looks factory. They’ve tried the 3m tips but it always looks crappy. I attempted the double round on a GM door we ordered, the entire car had seam sealer on the doors but the factory replacement didn’t. It didn’t work well, i ended up washing it all off and left it for the bodyman to deal with. Its a skill nobody seems to have at our shop and it would be nice to learn.
One of the nicest/easiest to use is the fusor 800ez. It is a 1 part urethane adhesive/seam sealer that comes in a caulking tube. It is slow enough to do large areas and easy to build thick (and doesn’t seem to shrink). Easy to smooth out with a little water.
Some of them can be a real hassle.Most of the time I like to use proform 211 urethane seam sealer over epoxy or etch,then spray it with W&G remover and tool it with a brush,finger,glass stick etc.It is an art,on toyota doors I would run tape on both edges of the hem flange tool it and flatten out the corners and peel off the tape.I remember somebody doing a post of pics on how to duplicate factory seam sealer,I’ll see if I can find it.
I haven’t found anything either that has been able to match factory, some stuff has came close but still hard to match tool markings.
For now I used sem, two part black, tan and gray, and the brush able stuff in can or caulking tube.Its simple.. Get one of these guys to do it for you.
Youtube has a ton of videos on this. Evercoats website has some of the better ones. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4CkhaV2V6k
Chuck
in my opinion it is all down to the guy behind the brush or caulking gun.
In all my years i have only worked behind two guys that are really good with sealer, no matter if they use cheap crap or the most expensive sealers they could replicate most sealed areas, and i never saw them using masking tape, always freehand.
Doorskins is always the tell tale one, seen some really bad ones it’s a shame because it can spoil an otherwise good job.
I dont consider myself a sealing expert, and i need to use masking tape lol.
Luckily one of the guys i mentioned above works for me as a painter, and always leave the sealing to him lol.
one of the harder ones to do is raised bead on the exterior of a panel van, lord fusor do a pretty good kit for this, and this is one area that has to be perfect as it is on full veiw all the time.
X2 on the Pro Form. With some help from masking tape and my finger :p
I just hosted a big fusor promo program that we installed complete fusor kits into 30 shops. part of the program was 2 hours of ICAR training for the products with focus on the sealers. I had the guys from fusor come up and we did a bunch of demos on the different patterns that can be done.
the one I thought was neat was using the semi-flow sealer (forget the #) on an old windshield. we made a 3/4″ ribbon on the glass using tape to make an even edge. using a spreader we flattened it out to 1/8″ thick by 3/4″ wide, peeled the tape back and let it set up. once it set (10-15 mins) we lifted one end and pulled it off the glass making a nice ribbon that replicated the wide seam found in some import wheel wells… then we just glued it up in there with more of the same sealer and made an OEM looking repair.
the other demo we did was playing with fusor’s sprayable seam sealer gun. by throttling the air we could make spirals, spatter or slightly rippled effects, which the guys thought was really cool.
Sounds like 2 hours well spent for the techs. Thanks for sharing the tips
[quote=”Tbar76″ post=29448]I just hosted a big fusor promo program that we installed complete fusor kits into 30 shops. part of the program was 2 hours of ICAR training for the products with focus on the sealers. I had the guys from fusor come up and we did a bunch of demos on the different patterns that can be done.
the one I thought was neat was using the semi-flow sealer (forget the #) on an old windshield. we made a 3/4″ ribbon on the glass using tape to make an even edge. using a spreader we flattened it out to 1/8″ thick by 3/4″ wide, peeled the tape back and let it set up. once it set (10-15 mins) we lifted one end and pulled it off the glass making a nice ribbon that replicated the wide seam found in some import wheel wells… then we just glued it up in there with more of the same sealer and made an OEM looking repair.
the other demo we did was playing with fusor’s sprayable seam sealer gun. by throttling the air we could make spirals, spatter or slightly rippled effects, which the guys thought was really cool.[/quote]
What were the shop using before the fusor?
The fusor sprayable gun works nice but it is a poor design. aluminum housing with threaded aluminum caps that are poorly machined. I bought one and used it once and was unable to take it back apart without a vice and some big channel locks. at that point it wasnt reusable :compsmashall the shops had a mixed bag of tricks… 3m, evercoat, proform, transtar, etc.
Fusor hasn’t had a jobber that carries the full line in our area in years, so I decided to do so.
I think the gun might be different now.. the ones I have have a cylinder that threads on with large coarse threads at one end that are brass. its super easy to open it and refill it, but you have to remember to NEVER let it run out of product or it will be ruined. (its very tough to clean out the passage ways)
I can upload a picture of the gun I have if you like.
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