sealing stepdown body

Walt-LA wrote:

Steve,

The original Hudson body sealer appears to have been an asphaltic product, which was used in a number of areas. I've encountered it in the trunk, where the floor meets the inner fender, etc., and where the rocker panels are attached to the perimiter frame. They used a heavy bead of this material on my Hornet. 'Bout half an inch diameter on the rockers, and more in the trunk. Because mine had hardened completely on the rockers, I removed the old material and will use 1/2" x 3/16" Permagum strips (doubled) on the Rockers when they are reattached.

In the trunk, I used a product I got from Restoration Specialties which was made by Au-ve-Co to reseal the areas where I removed it. It is simply called body sealer 1001. I bought natural color, and covered it with 3-M undercoating which I used on the trunk floor and inner fender wells. Hudson also used a fiber/noodle like material (it looks something like a mouse would have in a nest) inside of the perimeter frame, at least in the rear. I have not changed it--- I'd use the Au-ve-co product with the rockers if I could figure how to apply it easily. I've used permagum strips on the door sills with good results too.

The Hudson Body Service Manual has a section on sealing. see p 87.

Walt

I hear that "rats nest" stuff really caused a lot of dirt and crud to build up and is usually a first rust out point on stepdowns.

The Auveco is good stuff - a trick to smooth the edges out is you can take an acid brush and a small amount of enamel reducer (spit works too...but takes a while to get enough material :rolleyes: ) and lightly brush over it.

You can paint over this stuff in about 1/2 an hour - but I ususally give it a couple of days or more depending on humidity and temp...I like it to have a good hard skin on it as it can also be lightly sanded to make a nice finished surface.

Another thing I do is that I do not apply body seal until the car (or repair area) is sanded w/400 and nearly ready to paint. Then I apply the sealer over the primer and smooth as suggested above. Then when cured - lightly sand w/400 to finish smoothing (if needed) , then spray sealer (always seal before paiting) and then topcoat as needed.

I would stay away from using it on the rockers and definitely not on the quarter panel seams...this stuff hardens up and would be a major PIA to try and remove the panels for any future repair work.

I'll make one more suggestion that they didn't include on the factory seal job (no good if you are going for a #1 resto...) anywhere there is an open drain hole I am going to used a "auto-levelling" sealer compound - so that when water is collected it actually makes it to the drain hole rather than sitting and rotting out another section eventually.

Someone will thank me down the road!

There are some newer seam sealers that have more of a "flow" characteristic to it and doesn't need to be smoothed.