About to put the body on the chassis and have read a number of post about wet tubs etc. CMC manual says to just use a few caulking tubes of RTV but that stuff eventually peels.
Does anyone have suggestions/experience with using the original vw seal and or the 3M Urethane seam sealer body shops use? It can be smoothed to a featheredge and/or brushed. Tack free and paintable in 30 minutes.
Or does someone know what works best and stays put i.e. seals
Jim
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On my first CMC build I deleted the VW rubber seal and used 6 or 8 tubes of clear Silicon caulk (GE brand, I think), laying down a generously think (3/8"-1/2" thick) double bead along the entire pan-to-body seam. There are two spots , 1 front and 1 rear and right over the central tunnel) that will require that you shoot a bunch more caulk in there after you set the body on the pan - just a really poor design job on the body metal frame allowing a huge gap at the top of the tunnel.
It's OK to let the caulk set up to semi-firm......The body will just squish it out and seal everything up.
Remember that you'll have to skew the rear of the body left or right a bit to center it over the rear wheels or it'll be a little off forever. Doing the all-silicon approach seemed to work about as well as anyone else on here, and I went back later, after identifying a few leaking areas at the back and re-caulked into the seam to stop them up. Once THAT was done, I shot a couple of cans of aerosol rubberized undercoat into the seam just to make sure. No leaks since.
On my next build I used a new VW pan gasket, cut to fit the shorter pan. That went a little easier, but I still gooped the hell out of it with silicon caulk before putting everything together. That had a tendency to move around a bit as the body frame was being mated to the pan and was a bit frustrating, but it was OK in the end. After it was all set up and cured I shot the same rubberized undercoat along all of the seams to really seal it up.
I never finished that car (Merklin did and re-sold it) but it looked pretty well sealed when done.
I like the silicon caulk because it has a working temp range beyond our seasonal temperature swings so it stays pliable no matter what.
Liquid Nails works pretty good too. Semi-permanent and somewhat flexible when set up.
I used clear silicon too - and it seemed to work well with no gasket. The CMC build manual also calls for fiberglassing over where the body meets the pan to ensure there are no leaks or creaking. I think a lot of home building leave off that step for some reason.
Greg, how would you know if it worked well? Your car has never seen the road!
I'm gonna beat your horse until I see that car finished...
Greg, how would you know if it worked well? Your car has never seen the road!
I'm gonna beat your horse until I see that car finished...
Well, I did tow it 1100 miles in the rain and the Christmas decorations inside car didn't get wet at all. Got tremendous gas mileage too!
send that car to my shop in Chambersburg now let me finish it for you
send that car to my shop in Chambersburg now let me finish it for you
I'm sure Alan will give you the "Ohana" price and you'd be able to proudly take it to Carlisle 2016. If you don't like it when done, SELL IT! Split the profit with Alan and every ones happy one way or the other...
Setting up casual work time slots for the coming months into next Spring....
"Casual Work".........
Is that like, only 30 hours per week?
I used clear silicon too - and it seemed to work well with no gasket. The CMC build manual also calls for fiberglassing over where the body meets the pan to ensure there are no leaks or creaking. I think a lot of home building leave off that step for some reason.
Thanks I had to look again at my build book. The point about glassing body to pan is a bit subtle for me I guess I need to be hit with a bat to notice it
Sounds like the silicon and glass is the way to go! Thanks everybody!
