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Subject:Re: left lower seem rust!
From:River Clan
Date:Fri, 3 Mar 2006 01:09:17 -0800

I have had really good luck with 3M's grey sealer.... so far....

Is that what you had fail?

On Mar 2, 2006, at 9:45 PM, John Reddick wrote:

> The seams don't rust until the seam sealer cracks.  No cracks, no
> rust.
>  If you see a crack in the seams fill it with something, I don't
> care if it
> is toilet paper.  A crack starts what is called an "oxygen
> concentration
> cell" type of corrosion.  A difference of O2 concentration causes a
> bigger
> voltage difference than most other types of corrosion.  That is why
> bridges/pilings show lots of corrosion at the waterline, and little
> above or
> below the waterline. I have never seen a Vanagon with rust at a non
> cracked
> seam.  Just the opposite, I have an 86 Syncro that lived its entire
> life in
> CA.  The whole thing is beautiful.  Except for 1 12 inch section of
> seam,
> which is beginning to rust.  At the cracked seam.
>     Now the question, what do you replace the factory seam sealer
> with?  1
> part polyurethane?  Catalyzed seam sealer?  I used very expensive
> catalyzed
> seam-sealer on a repaint of a van and it cracked in 9 months.
> Anybody got a
> good answer to that?  The sealer I used was 30 bucks a tube,
> wholesale, body
> shop stuff.  It wasn't flexible enough.
>