Author Topic: Seam sealer used under fenders  (Read 2605 times)

Offline macdude67

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Seam sealer used under fenders
« on: March 31, 2010, 10:42:53 PM »
There is some debate to the color of the sealer under the fenders of 64.5 to 67 Mustangs at least to me. I have conferred with a very good Mustang restoration shop here in central florida and agree with them as to the sealer used under the fenders being Grey and not Black. I personally have removed over a hundred fenders off of mustangs over the past 25+ yrs and the sealer was grey where the fender and apron meet. The part that squeezes out form the sheetmetal and is visible in the engine compartment looks black and I can only deduce thats is from years ofcontamination and weathering. But if you dig some of that stuff out and cut it to cross section it I have found it to be grey in color. Any thoughts?

Offline J_Speegle

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Re: Seam sealer used under fenders
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2010, 11:03:59 PM »
Guess I should first ask what plant are the cars from that you have been looking at.


Looked at plenty of this and agree that after 40+ years some examples look gray. IMHO this is a result of time and the elements and was original black or a very dark gray in color.  Similar to the effect of the elements on some examples of the sound deadener used.  Plenty of original cars still with the dark stuff in place and visible

Unfortunately we can't always trust what we see (lots of examples of that) at this late date

Ford did offer (you can find it on Ebay for sale) some light gray seam/cord sealer (hate to see it used on restored cars at shows) in the late 70's or 80's.  IMHO the wrong stuff to use
« Last Edit: March 31, 2010, 11:53:16 PM by J_Speegle »
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Offline CharlesTurner

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Re: Seam sealer used under fenders
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2010, 10:06:24 AM »
I agree with Jeff that we cannot make a blanket statement about the sealer color.  In my experience, both colors were used.  I will say that I have not found the light gray sealer before.  The gray used was typically a medium to dark gray.
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Offline macdude67

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Re: Seam sealer used under fenders
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2010, 08:38:24 PM »
I cannot attest to what plant the fenders came from for most of them but I do have a couple of cars that had the grey sealer. I will get a look at the vin's. And it would be a neat trick to see black sealer fade to white or light grey. It's grey even in the middle when you scrape some off and break it in half. I will attempt to get some photos of this.

Offline J_Speegle

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Re: Seam sealer used under fenders
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2010, 10:08:40 PM »
I cannot attest to what plant the fenders came from for most of them but I do have a couple of cars that had the grey sealer. I will get a look at the vin's. And it would be a neat trick to see black sealer fade to white or light grey. ...........

If it had asbestos in it (like many products did of the time) its not that unusual. An example would be the black sound deadener that was sprayed in the wheel wells turns to white - all the way through





What year and plant do you want to focus the discussion on? Have a number of examples (pictures) I can post also since this has been the point of discussion before

Jeff Speegle

Anything worth doing is worth doing concours ;)