Sealer to use for gutters/drip rails?

[RouteVanJoe]

Anyone have any recommendations for the best type of sealer to use (or avoid) or other must-do items to fix leaky gutters?

 

I recently discovered that water was coming into the interior up around the gutters, and while I initially thought it might be just a few rust pinholes, it didn't take more than a few seconds up on the ladder to see what the problem was.  Of course, on a less-tall vehicle, I might have spotted it sooner.

 

Several of the spot welds appear to have rusted through and/or separated.  Water is coming in through the gap between the two layers of sheet metal.  Plenty of dirt and even a little bit of moss.  See photo... It's depressing.

 

Of course, the right thing to do is to strip it down to bare metal and weld it, but that is not in the cards.  You'd have to remove the entire roof to get the rust out in between.  My tentative plan is to clean out the gutters as best I can (water, toothbrush, air gun, wire brush, maybe even a pressure washer) and then apply a seam sealer.  I'm leaning towards "Dynatron 550" but open to suggestion of other products, prep/application tips, etc.

 

Ideally I'd like something that I can really force into the gap, similar in thickness to Bondo or household painter's caulk (though I understand I can't use house caulk).  Self-leveling would presumably run to the end of the gutters and out, so that's no good.

 

The sealer needs to stick to paint and to bare metal and hopefully to dirty/rusty metal too.  Needs to be paintable and sun-stable.  Doesn't have to look great because you'd have to be 9 feet tall to see it.

[RouteVanJoe]

Sorry the photo didn't come through the first time.  Here it is.

[NiftyFifty]

POR-15 is a very good paintable product that works well on pin holes, there are a few different formulas of it...I just used the regular paint on black style myself. You can also use it with fibreglass sheet to do repairs in in visible spots that you need to patch and don't want filler in the spots.

[JBNeal]

I would say to clean out all of the crud as best as you can, then apply a rust dissolver to stop the damage...but if you apply a seam sealer now, how would you do a full repair in the future with the sealer in place?

[RouteVanJoe]

I'm not  opposed to putting some kind of primer or rust dissolver onto there, though it'll be hard to ensure complete coverage.  Naval Jelly is really the only rust dissolver I've had good luck with in the past, but it's acidic and i wouldn't be able to fully rinse it away from inside the gap.

Admittedly, the rust will probably continue regardless and someday there might have to be some more major welding to fix it.  But I'm hoping I can stop the leaking and push that day to the distant future.

[Plymouthy Adams]

prep it/derust as best you can,  if you have holes I recommend welding them up.   As mentioned..POR15 has a sealer in a tube that is just for these filler needs around the drip rail and other body seams.  But I only recommend it as a sealer and not a body panel in a tube..

[ggdad1951]

Joe....I got a welder, drive up and lets get er done!  

 

you really should tie the two layers back together...

[RouteVanJoe]

My biggest motivation for taking out those interior ceiling panels (and thus discovering the leak) was so I could pretty it up for Mopars in the Park next year :-)  I knew I'd have to step up my game if I'm going to be in the same judging class as yours... Now I have doubts that I'll get it put back together by then!  Fortunately, it's still fully drivable though.

 

I won't rule out some welding and I might take you up on that!  On the other hand they were just spot welds in the first place, the connections are now just a little less closely spaced.  I plan to take it to the car wash before I put it away over the winter, so hopefully I can get these spots cleaned up and have a better idea of how many have separated.

[ggdad1951]

Joe, BTW if you did not see I picked up a parts book that includes route van....open invite when ever to come take a gander and do some work on the van if you need it.

[P15-D24]

Instead of welding how about brazing?

[janan5243]

For a quick fix, how about J_B Weld. Sets up fast & you can shape it & paint it. I wouldn't recommend brazing. Possibly too much heat distortion of body panels.

[Dodgeb4ya]

It's pretty hard to weld/braze thin rusty metal.The rust scale pops and then a small hole.

[Plymouthy Adams]

brazing and welding with the torch is same process, different media..problems with brazing is getting the metal super clean after the fact..it will grow hiar if any flux residue is left...even IF painted...getting flux out of a hidden seam will be quite the task...

[Dave72dt]

If you have a choice between welding and brazing and have any thoughts of proper and complete repairs later, weld it.  Welding after it has been brazed makes rust repair in that area extremely difficult.

[MBF]

After a good thorough cleaning I used a very fine bead of paintable silicone seam sealer on both of mine.  The welds were pretty much intact, but it did leak between the spot welds.  I have no idea what they used when they manufactured the cabs.

[JBNeal]

maybe they sweated some old lead wheel weights in there prior to paint

[Sportfury59]

Sorry the photo didn't come through the first time. Here it is.

[ptwothree]

My 2 sense.....unless all of what's rusted is replaced with new metal, anything else is a band aid.  I would cut out the rusted roof flange and repair/replace what it's attached to.  Then fab up a new flange,  maybe do this in 1 or 2 foot sections, and mig it back together.  Seam seal  and paint it.

 

It's a lot of work but worth it if this is a keeper.  

[NiftyFifty]

That's a major major fab job to cut the rails and replace that metal...if your doing that, I'd recommend it's when you plan to do al the needed bodywork and paint. I would wire wheel all the loose bits out, spray a coat of rust converting primer, then pour in the POR15 so it's a bit of a thicker coat...holding it in with some putty where it would normally drip off. That stuff is hard as a rock when I used it under my running boards, and dries very smooth, so a shot of paint over it is no problem

[RouteVanJoe]

Thanks everyone for your input thus far.

 

As a little update, I got out my step ladder and some Mr. Clean in a spray bottle, along with a small plastic brush and scrubbed out the drip rail as well as I could all the way around.  I then went to my local do-it-yourself car wash (with the step ladder) and used the pressure washer from up top to clean it all out as best I could.

 

It's hard to tell which of the spot welds, if any, have actually separated, but that's my next task.  What I can say is that the original fabrication was spot welds every few inches followed by seam sealer.  Over the years (and a few paint jobs), the seam sealer largely broke apart and came out, but there's a few areas where it's still visible.

 

Even if a few of the spot welds have separated, the sheet metal pieces do not appear to be in any near-term danger of actually letting go of each other.  There's plenty of other welds holding the two pieces together.  But if I find that a whole string of spot welds came apart, then I might look at some welding before seam-sealing it.

 

But apart from that, I'm optimistic at this point that I can solve the leakage effectively with seam sealer.  It won't completely stop the rust, but there's plenty of other rust on this vehicle that may need some major fab work someday.  I like the idea of getting some POR or something in there first though.

[48Dodger]

When the Van hits the road...the thumping and shaking might break the remaining original spot welds free. Sealer and or Por-15 aren't going to hold it. 

Phosphoric acid is the best way to get the rust killed. I like the spray Jasco has, or I should say, I put a spray lid on it and use it as so. Naval jelly is

great, but is designed to stick and not flow. Neutralizing the acid (lots of water) is possible and part of the process (drying out the work) . 

Etching primers are made with acids in it.They are designed to be sprayed in areas where sanding and prepping are difficult.

After knocking the rust down, new spot welds should be considered. Drill the first layer to the rail (rosette) and weld them in.

Use a spot weld drill bit.Takes time, but that roof is huge and carries a lot of torque trying to hold the hull together under

a "load" while driving down the road.

 

Just my thoughts, hope you're enjoying the build.   

 

48D