Itinerant Air-Cooled

Ritter wrote:

Birdibus wrote:forgot to load my photos into the laptop. The job isn't real pretty, mostly because of the unmatching Rustoleum baby blue, but good enough for the battery.

I'd love to see pictures if you have the time. I'm considering this repair as well.

So, does consensus say layer of por15, layer of fiberglass, layer of por15, layer (or two) of topcoat? What about below the battery tray? Layer of por15 then topcoat?

You don't need the two layers of POR15, just one. That's overkill. The POR15's main purpose is to seal the metal from oxygen. Once it's on, it's rock solid. Then you are putting fiberglass over the top. Then topcoat over the fiberglass is all that's necessary. Below the battery tray POR15 and topcoat. I'd also advise using the Marine Clean and Metal Ready products before the POR15 application (that's the official POR15 recommendation as well.) I did a Mustang a few years ago with it, and was very pleased with the results.

I received a replacement battery tray yesterday. The plan is to cut out my POR15/fiberglass patch, clean up the edges and weld in the new piece.

The patch has been fine up to now, but I'm ready to put metal back in. There's some rust around the side marker, so I'm not worried about the paint getting scorched in the area. Hope to get it done in the next week or so.

As threatened, I installed the new tray this afternoon with the help of a local firefighter who moonlights as a welder.

Used a plasma cutter to cut out the old tray, leaving a bit of a lip around the edge (except for the front). After a lot of trimming and test-fitting, got it close enough to weld. Tack welded the new tray in from underneath, so as to avoid burning the paint on the outside. Also put a couple of tacks inside the engine compartment.











Now I just need to do a bit more rust treatment and get a bead of caulk around the edge, and it'll be good as new. The fiberglass/POR15 solution was fine for a while, but I feel a lot better with a metal piece that includes a functional hold-down.

Water is meant to flow through that area so seal those seams, you don't want water and debris getting under there and bringing you back to square one.

Finally, at last, I have been able to upload these photos. Click for larger image (photobucket is not working for me, boo hoo)

battery tray with one coat por-15
[albumimg]2067[/albumimg]

fiberglass patch cut and ready
[albumimg]2068[/albumimg]

patch in place. Note hole cut in spot where water wants to drain while parked on my driveway. I shaped this hole slightly downward, and created a paint drip underneath to help shed water. I painted a second layer of por-15 to use as 'glue' to hold the patch, then painted another layer when it was tacky, to seal the fiberglass. I would have put the patch onto the first layer of por-15, but it dried hard before I was prepared. I also painted the underside with por-15, locking the fabric tightly against the metal and sealing the edges (no photo).
[albumimg]2069[/albumimg]

after fiberglass, 2 more coats of por-15, 2 coats of primer, and rustoleum
[albumimg]2066[/albumimg]

funny packaging from the vintage fiberglass curtains I used for the patch
[albumimg]2070[/albumimg]

Looks good!

Very nice. Thanks for makin me look lazy. Ok it's true.

Thanks for the photos. It looks good to me and I know my poor painting skills will outperform my nonexistent welding skills.

All I could find were these curtains from the 50s. Will these work?
[albumimg]2084[/albumimg]

hee hee, funny-man!

The instructions on the fiberglass curtains specify hand-washing. I can imagine the itchy and linty mess if washed in the agitator. Yuck. I suppose that's why we no longer see fiberglass curtains.

So, that's me, always looking for new uses for old products. That, and my lifelong commitment to living outside the grid as much as possible... I'd rather buy stuff from 'recyclers' (thrift stores), than to enrich big-box corporate entities. My own private revolt, if you will, against the system.

Hambone, you, lazy? You, who rides a bicycle to work? You, who packs up and goes camping and hiking whenever possible? Perish the thought!

Hey Birdie, good work. Ive been meaning to post to you to say what a neat thing that cloth find was. So now that your back on line more, I missed you, I want to ask about the pore-15. I.ve used resin and fiberglass for tray over wood and it lasted for over 15 yrs, but I got the metal replacment one from WW when I was fixing up El last year.

Can the pore-15 be sanded and would it be a good product to use on vertical areas of bus? Or would it be too runny ?
Thanks for your opinion. Barb

Hi Barb. Good to see more of you here. The instructions with the POR recommend spraying a light 'dust coat' of primer while the POR is tacky. But if it dries, then you should sand it before primering. So, yes, that implies it can be sanded, in fact, should be sanded before being topcoated. You can put bondo over POR, too. Sand it first, they say.

I'm sure POR can be used on vertical surfaces. Just don't overload the brush and be ready to wipe up drips. I touched up a few small patches on my yellow paint. Does Jake need some treatment?

Good info Birdi, thanks. And a big YES to Jake needing a little "Buffing out" as they say over on the other side. Got lots of pictures I still have trouble with on Photo Dump so I wil wait till I have some "After Ones" to post. Or is it bucket? Anyway Jake is really perty sound but the storage in a very dirty dry lot for 10yrs took its tole on all rubber and the bondo work that was done on him is chipping off, none to thick yet but underneath is surface rust. Thats why I was curious about the por-15 before I apply new. Sounds like it is the product to use.

photodump (ha! too funny!).

Birdibus wrote:I, too, am having trouble with photodump (ha! too funny!). I can't upload pics anymore. They are saying I need a new browser. What the??? The old one was working just fine, thank you very much. It's potatobucket that has dropped the spud, if you get my drift. google maps has also left me behind in antiquated-technology land. boo hoo

There are incompatabilities between Photophucket and Internet Explorer, something about add-ons and macromedia java-script applets flashblahblahblah. When I installed Mozilla Firefox, Photobugget was more amenable to uploads once more.
Colin
(this thread will be edited after a time since this is not related to body/hardware)