Hey everybody, Ryan Marinnan here for 3M. We're going to show you today some tips and
tricks on how to replicate a door skin seam sealer bead particularly here on
this Ford F-150. We're going to head inside and get started.
Alright guys so we're gonna show you how we're gonna replicate that look on
that Ford door skin inner panel, you know, if we're replacing a door, we're
doing a door skin, something that's a little bit unique to Ford is they have
kind of a squared-off edge but it still looks like a flowed-out seam sealer.
So we're going to show you how we're going to do that here today.
On our panel we've already got it prepped. We've epoxy-primed it because we had some exposed
bare metal. We've got it scuffed and we've taped it off to the exact width of
the bead that we're trying to replicate. First thing that we're going to do is we're
going to grab our 8323 product over here, so our factory-matched
seam sealer, and like anytime you grab one of our cartridges we're going to
equalize it up right into a paper towel making sure that we got equal parts A
and B coming out of the cartridge. Once we apply the static mixing nozzle to the
cartridge, we're going to dispense a little bit onto preferably a mixing board or
you can put it back into that same paper towel. What we're looking at doing here
is we want to just create a couple inches of material, making sure that
we've got it thoroughly mixed as it comes through the tip.
Now, this particular product could also be used in a hand caulking applicator. I'm using a
pneumatic here today it's got a lower viscosity, so just a little tip:
Turn the air pressure down just a little bit before you dispense it onto the vehicle
or onto the part you're replacing so that we're not making a mess.
And what we're gonna do here is we're just going to get it caulked out.
As you can see it came out pretty quick, so we've had to move a little quick but I made sure that
I maintain that angle so that I was pushing the seam sealer into that hem flange.
As this starts to settle down it's going to create a nice tight seal
along that which is important. What we're going to do is we're going to come in with a spreader.
I've cut some down to like a third of the size here and we're just
going to knock that material down, making sure that it makes it all the way from
tape to tape because again the tape is actually the desired width that we want
that seam sealer bead to be, so we're not concerned about what's come over on top.
Once I have this caulked up we're going to go ahead and pull our tape.
Now, the best practice for applying this to a new panel replacement paddle, whatever it
might be that you're working on, is I always like to start in one location and
work my way around to an ending position. And that's the same case when I
lay out my tape. When I caulk out my material and then when I hit it
with the spreader just to knock it down and when I come back to remove my tape
I'm going to start from that same position again. This gives the material roughly
the equal amount of time to rest on the panel and so when we pull our tape we're
going to get about the same amount of look as we travel around that panel.
As we pull our tape off, you'll notice that I'm pulling backwards against itself almost
cutting that edge clean it's important here that we pull it either straight
back or maybe even inward just a little bit. We don't want to pull it outward and
create sort of what we call a wave, because then we have got to be concerned
about getting paint inside there to make sure we got good corrosion protection.
So best practice is if you actually just pull it inward just a little bit,
as you're pulling back, you'll get a nice clean edge.
Now, with this factory-match seam sealer, what's going to happen here is this will
have just a slight amount of sag to it. It is a two-part urethane so we're going to
get that clean, squared edge. It will round just a little bit so you get a
nice look to it just like they have on the trucks.
And then we're going to take a spreader again we're going to pinch off the corners.
Now in the case of some vehicles, they start up a little bit higher with how they pinch off that bead.
Now, it's important that we pinch this off and while the materials still in a working condition,
we're going to go ahead and were going to kind of clean that up.
If you need to you can also use our G-pack or our specialty adhesive cleaner as a
tooling aide while we're working on these panels.
After our initial tooling, you can use these products to create sort of that final look if you haven't
achieved it just by some rough tooling. So we're gonna clean up a
little bit of mess here and a little bit on this edge that I don't like.
Because again I want it to look just like it did from the factory, like we didn't replace the panel.
So now I've created that clean look, if I need to I could come in here
with my finger a little bit, I could smooth that out.
Now, it's important that we follow what the OEM recommendation is here, and in this case
they want us to pinch off these corners and it's important for a few reasons, but
particularly we don't want water building up along this
this lower edge. If water builds up here it needs a place to drain off which is
why they actually pinched off the corners on the panels.
They also do this for gasket clearances and some other reasons but we want to make sure that
the water isn't sitting on that surface eating away at it and
causing problems down the road.
Alright guys, that's it for this bead here today.
For more information on our seam sealers, visit 3M Collision Repair Academy.
The link is in the description below. Also check out some of the other videos on
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practices in the industry. If you like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs
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