TR6 TR6 Interior Seam Sealer Issue, Restorers! Step In

[Renoman]

Well it seems that the more I delve into my TR the more I find that it could use some attention. Basically I started to just remove the windscreen, add a new glass seal, cowl seal, repaint the windscreen frame and cowl. Install all new crashpads and recover the dash support. I already had a new wood dashboard. I have removed everything including the steering column and metal dash, heater box and hoses. So now I'm staring at pretty much a bare dash with hanging wiring and some cables hanging from the firewall. I started cleaning the firewall with solvent to remove years of grime and I noticed that the seam sealer is like a black tar which the original paint does not stick to very well. Also, in some areas along the floor pan along the sills the seam sealer easily separates from the reddish primer. So now I'm thinking maybe I should remove all of the old seam sealer and reseal all the seams at least along the seams above the heater box since the area on the other side would collect water and possibly leak into the interior. I read about the drain tubes which are pretty much useless as they dump water behind the fender with nowhere to drain. A re-route of the drain tube is in order since I read about someone doing this. OK, enough rambling. What should I use to re-seal the panel joints? I noticed there's some spots of surface rust on the floor pan so I was going to sand those areas down and may use some POR-15 on the floor pan. So then I thought maybe I should just paint the floorpan black and for that matter the entire interior except under the dash which I might just paint white so when working under it the light would reflect just nicely. Anyway any comments are appreciated. I'm no stranger to working on cars and painting them and doing some restorations. I just wanted to hear what you guys have to say about it. Thanks.

Art (the new old guy on the forum)

 

[TR6oldtimer]

Art, There are all types of seam and joint sealers out there. Drop by your local PPG, Dupont, or other auto paint store and they will be able to help you.

I found this product met all of my sealing requirements.

3-M 08531 HEAVY DRIP CHEK SEALER, NET 5 FL OUNCES IN A SQUEEZE TUBE.

 

[Renoman]

Thanks for the tip. I think I've used this product on the 66 Mustang I restored. I used it on the drip rail. The tube is handy but the product is difficult to squeeze out of the tube unless a lot of pressure is used while rolling up the tube. I might look at a cartridge type sealer I can use a cartridge gun with.

I just got done scraping all of the old sealer off the firewall and sill areas and started working on the rear compartment and fenders. In some areas it just pops off easily. The area underneath the sealer in all locations is in remarkable condition. I very happy the car is solid in all the areas I have been working on. The floor sections are very solid but there are several layers of paint and gunk accumulated on them and I'm deciding how I want to clean these areas. Sanding is tedious, paint remover is messy, sand blasting is really messy. I scraped the surfaces with a gasket scraper and this has loosened up some of the surface gunk. Whoever painted the floor didn't prep it and there were some rust spots that weren't treated. These rust spots appear to be on the surface. After removing the paint, I'll treat these with Rust-Mort. I was considering painting the floor with POR-15. I was able to pop off the sound deadening material behind the seats on the floor and on the package tray area. Nice to see virgin metal with what appears to be a zinc type color of paint or primer. More to follow...

Art

 

[rchakr]

Art, on my floor pans I used a POR 15 product called 'hard as nails' paint. It's a 2 part epoxy paint that dries to a very hard finish. Best of all, it comes in colors; one of which was close to my body color. Bob Hunt

 

[Renoman]

Thanks Bob for the POR-15 info.

Interesting discovery this evening while cleaning off old tar sealer...

Diesel fuel does a wonderful job of cutting through the old sealer quickly and with less noxious fumes. Lacquer thinner works but with very high VOCs and is difficult to work around without breathing fumes.

I picked up some 3M sealer in a cartridge tube I can use my caulking gun to apply. I need to take some before and after pics.


Keep you posted.

Art