Couple of projects today, roof, interior

[fearfair]

Put a fresh coat of Herculiner UV topcoat on the roof, was really faded out from the sun..

before:

after:

[Psychoholic]

[fearfair]

It had pics... that will teach me to post pics from twitpic... I will put them in a better spot now.

[Psychoholic]

Looks great man. How much did that set you back if you don't mind me asking.

[fearfair]

Looks great man. How much did that set you back if you don't mind me asking.

It's just Herculiner bed liner. When I originally did it a few years ago it was under $200 for two full size bed kits. All I did this time was recoat it with their UV Top Coat, took two quarts at $19 each. Turns out, I was supposed to use the top coat to begin with. But, it made it look brand new.



I worked on the floor today. The carpet is totally rotted out of the car and I have noticed a lot of moisture in the floor, plus we wanted to change the interior color to black.




Once I got the interior stripped out (which was a total pita by the way due to having to cut the tops off of all four seat belt bolts and extract them with a bolt extractor... rusted) I found out it was worse than I thought... bad case of cancer.





I originally planned to do this right. I went so far as making cardboard templates and then cutting out the panels with the plasma cutter. When I tried to weld the first one in, no dice. I set the welder on the lowest heat setting and it still just blew out holes the size of a penny as soon as you touched the floor. I didn't want to replace the whole floor at this time, and I was concerned that if I just overlaid the entire floor with a sheet of metal I would create a cavity for moisture to sit in and rust even worse... someday I will probably come back and take the whole floor out and do it right, but I really just needed to get this done and back on the road as we have a convention for the haunted house on May 8th that we need to drive the hearse to...

The following would make Bubba proud. There is a cavity between the two layers of floor in the part under the seat where there is a bottom layer of sheetmetal, then the crossmembers the seat bolts to, then the top layer... I didn't want to just leave this as a big cavity to stay wet and rust, so I sprayed it full of spray foam just to try to keep moisture out..


Then I put my patch panels down, put some self tapping screws in and used Bondo fiberglass resin jelly and mat seal the edges..





I don't know, I hate doing crap this way, but the moisture is sealed out, it's strong and there is new metal in there. I was able to weld in the patch on the tunnel where the seat belt mounts since the metal was a little better there. I sprayed the whole floor down with that stuff that claims to turn rust to black primer and once it's had 24 hours to dry, I am going to spray undercoat the whole mess before I put the new carpet in.

In a few years I may come back and replace the whole floor properly, but this will hopefully slow down the decay and keep the new carpet from getting ruined. I found the source of water coming in too, and fixed that, so hopefully on the right track.

[TWHawk]

"I found the source of water coming in too, and fixed that, so hopefully on the right track. "

I'm interested to know where and how you found the source of the moisture coming in under the floor. The last time I got Helen out, she had been sitting for about a month, and tightly covered - She still had wet carpet under the seat.

[fearfair]

"I found the source of water coming in too, and fixed that, so hopefully on the right track. "

I'm interested to know where and how you found the source of the moisture coming in under the floor. The last time I got Helen out, she had been sitting for about a month, and tightly covered - She still had wet carpet under the seat.

In my case it was water running down the drip rail along the top, going underneath the trim where the windshield pillar meets the roof and channeling all the way down and pouring out like a faucet down by the kick panel. I siliconed the heck out of that corner and now the water drips down on the outside of the door weatherstripping and out that way. It poured over night, opened the door a moment ago and dry as a bone... huge relief.

[Abnorml]

In my case it was water running down the drip rail along the top, going underneath the trim where the windshield pillar meets the roof and channeling all the way down and pouring out like a faucet down by the kick panel. I siliconed the heck out of that corner and now the water drips down on the outside of the door weatherstripping and out that way. It poured over night, opened the door a moment ago and dry as a bone... huge relief.

Abbie's passenger side carpet is always wet after it rains. I have new carpet, but not going to put in it until I find the leak.

[northgahearse]

i have found leaks at the windshield pillar,the windshield and top trim, the door weatherstripping... drys out gets hard also trash gets in there.... both 78s leak under the hood at the heater box ...... check in the rear the trim under the landau bars water likes to get under there and get in the rear quarters you'll never know till its to late .... the rear door loading plate with rollers the seal drys out and thats one way your floor starts to rot ....... and drill holes in your doors along the bottom so whats gets in can get out .................

[fearfair]

Well it rained all day and it's bone dry inside so I am feeling pretty good about having gotten it for now. I went ahead and sprayed undercoating on the entire floor. I may try to get carpet in tomorrow night.

[Guest]

i found a hole in my firewall where water was coming in

[VAMP3D]

So, how's the herculiner holding up?? How long did it take to apply? I'm getting mine back from the painter on Friday, and I'm hoping to have the top stripped, sanded, treated and done b4 sunday morning.....

[fearfair]

It's holding up really well. Just remember to use the UV sealant, a lot of places that sell the herculiner don't carry the UV top coat and it is essential if it's going to be in the sun at all.

[tonytheskin]

It's holding up really well. Just remember to use the UV sealant, a lot of places that sell the herculiner don't carry the UV top coat and it is essential if it's going to be in the sun at all.

You know only true hearse drivers drive them at night.