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banger68
06-11-2008, 01:16 PM
The seam sealer in the Daytonas is notorious for holding moisture and rotting out the floor and front wheel wells. To head this off I'm taking/scrapping/grinding/peeling out the sealer on my 86. I really lucked out with this car ... zero rust under the sealer so far. Has anybody used a replacement that STAYS stuck to the metal and doesn't hold water? I have POR15 that I'm going to coat these areas but shouldn't some sort of sealer be used?

overboostmotorsports
06-11-2008, 01:46 PM
the problem isn't that it holds moisture . the problem lies that these are 20 year old cars. that said .... most of them get hammered on by prior owners and not adored like us . so what happens is the sealer eventually gets hard crap gets spilled and not cleaned up windows are left open in the rain all this gets under it and makes a mess. so scrapping it out definetely helps. if you can/have access to a welder weld up the seams after you clean them (helps stiffen the chassis :thumb:) then lay some new seam sealer and be good to go for another 20 years. 3m makes a good product it can be had in a can form or caulking tube (found this the easiest). it is brushable seam sealer. most napa stores carry it.




Norm

banger68
06-11-2008, 02:10 PM
I disaggree. I beleive that it does hold moisture is the major problem. I agree that it gets hard, and when it does it doesn't stick to the metal properly. Then it lets moisture between the sealer and the metal. I've had cars that you could't see any rust, but it would be rotted under the seam sealer. That joint in the wheel well is really bad for this in a Daytona. Letting the interior get soaked is what rots the bottom of the pans.

Thanks for the tip on the 3M sealer. I'll see if I can find some. I'm going to coat the metal with POR15 too, so that should keep the rust away. I would think the sealer would stick to POR15?

Bill

DB-Rocket
06-12-2008, 09:53 AM
Yes old style seam sealers do hold moisture.

The new seam sealers are not as bad, but I prefer to use urethane caulking instead of seam sealer.