Panel Bond as Seam Sealer?

[fordguy]

Couple of my friends have used it in the past few months (A model street rod and 55 chevy truck series 1). Both said it was a little hard to sand but liked it. The A model has been painted and so far it appears to be holding up). Anybody got any experience or thoughts on this.

 

[fatboy]

Don't have any help here but I do have a question. Why do you not want to use seam sealer? I would think that it is a product designed for this application. I did consider this myself but have yet to fill any seams.

 

[fordguy]

you can shape/sand the panel bond so on an old vehicle you can actually make the seam look better. i am wanting to hear from the body guys to see what the long
use is going to be like.

 

[gunnibronco]

Panel bond makes a nice seal between the flanges where it is used, so it acts like a seam sealer. But it's brittle & cracks. Seam sealers have more flex. We use panel bond to replace welds or panel bond, but we use seam sealer to replace seam sealer.

Most seam sealers can be smoothed over with a brush & water or paint thinner. We use an acid/flux brush to smooth things out. Use masking tape to keep the sealer seam small, & peel it off before things set up. Don't use a free flowing sealer, find a heavy bodied sealer.

We use a lot of 3m automix sealer and it can be sanded down after it sets. Don't know about sanding the caulk gun type sealers.

 

[fordguy]

if it is brittle and cracks how does it hold panels together? this has only been on the a model for a few months so time will tell.

 

[gunnibronco]

Just that seam sealer has more flexibility.

The panel bond I've seen break & crack is due to an impact/accident.

It would be a very long term problem, probably not something to worry about. Maybe if the truck is constantly trail driven, I could see things cracking out after a while.

On a street driven hot rod, it probably won't be a problem.

 

[Petraszewsky]

I've used panel bond 3M 08115 and its strong as hell but has a long set time so it runs a bit. There may be a faster setting part number but I have no experience with it. I've also used 3M 05887 to remold a bumper with great results and its a fast setting kind but is not the same as panel bond in any way. Both are easy to sand IMO with the 05887 being slightly easier. The 08115 panel bond is some tough stuff though.

Here's the 05887:

Working on deleting the chrome strips on the Envoy Bumper and repaired a gaint gash in the center of it along with one of the mounting tabs. I used 3M 05887 Flexible/Semi Rigid Plastic Repair.

Before:





After:





Mounting tab being fixed



Reinforced the tabs in the center of the bumper cover




I cut the rough edges so I could fit them back together as tight as possible then I plastic welded the edge together front and back before sanding and applying the 3M Repair.






Hole/Gash in the center repaired

 

[jmeyer1971]

Panel bond on a hood, roof or other large panel will cause dimpling because it grabs so hard seam sealer gives a little so two diff animals depends on the application