Dean Jenkins
Promoted Users
I had 4 or 5 rust pinholes in the el Camino roof. I was stressing a bit about cutting the metal out and trying to butt weld in patches.
As has been discussed many times in this forum, doing flange type lap/fillet welds will result in ghost lines due to different metal thicknesses. And this car will be black - the worst
I was really worried that attempting butt welds would result in blow throughs on partially compromised metal. And of course, warping out in the middle of a big panel.
Luckily, I've made friends with a local restoration shop owner who has offered to coach/mentor me as I learn.
I called him and asked about this. He offered a simple solution. He said, "you are right, that is a VERY advanced welding challenge - I wouldn't attempt it. Use 3M Panel Bond. Grind the underside to bare metal and then spread the panel bond like body filler and let it ooze up through the pinholes, then grind any excess on the top, down flat after it has cured." He even loaned me his special 3M 2-part caulking gun to do it (~$60 to buy one.)
I had never heard of this material. After reading about it, I was amazed! Many of you already know, but they use this to build new cars, in liu of welding. Wow!
So I did it. And, we decided to use it on the factory seam between the quarter panel sail and the roof panel. The factory joint was filled with solder. We melted the solder out to check for rust. The indent is about 1/4", which is deeper than I wanted to fill with body filler.
So, filled about half of the depth with the 3M 8115 and then can skin the remaining with body filler. Nice!
Here are a few pics:
Hard to see the holes. I turned the shop lights off and used a mega halogen work light in the cab to make sure I found them all.
Skim of 3M 8115 on the inside of the roof panel
Quarter panel sail to roof joint, bare
Quarter panel sail to roof - skimmed with 3M 8115
I think this is going to work!
As has been discussed many times in this forum, doing flange type lap/fillet welds will result in ghost lines due to different metal thicknesses. And this car will be black - the worst
I was really worried that attempting butt welds would result in blow throughs on partially compromised metal. And of course, warping out in the middle of a big panel.
Luckily, I've made friends with a local restoration shop owner who has offered to coach/mentor me as I learn.
I called him and asked about this. He offered a simple solution. He said, "you are right, that is a VERY advanced welding challenge - I wouldn't attempt it. Use 3M Panel Bond. Grind the underside to bare metal and then spread the panel bond like body filler and let it ooze up through the pinholes, then grind any excess on the top, down flat after it has cured." He even loaned me his special 3M 2-part caulking gun to do it (~$60 to buy one.)
I had never heard of this material. After reading about it, I was amazed! Many of you already know, but they use this to build new cars, in liu of welding. Wow!
So I did it. And, we decided to use it on the factory seam between the quarter panel sail and the roof panel. The factory joint was filled with solder. We melted the solder out to check for rust. The indent is about 1/4", which is deeper than I wanted to fill with body filler.
So, filled about half of the depth with the 3M 8115 and then can skin the remaining with body filler. Nice!
Here are a few pics:
Hard to see the holes. I turned the shop lights off and used a mega halogen work light in the cab to make sure I found them all.
Skim of 3M 8115 on the inside of the roof panel
Quarter panel sail to roof joint, bare
Quarter panel sail to roof - skimmed with 3M 8115
I think this is going to work!