Alas, some silicone success!

Today I took the clamps off...and nothing fell apart...yet...



I'm not really happy the way it came out. I'll have to clean it up with a razor blade and wonder how strong the bond is.

Above is the Coin Returns I received from Wayne yesterday.

I called a sandblasting place today and inquired about sandblasting the old paint off my skins. He's not sure he has a fine enough material, so the search continues Monday!

New Parts arrived & take two on door trim

I apologize for not having photos...I didn't have a chance to take any before dashing off to work.

First, the Coin Returns arrived today. I already had a set of these from a run done two years ago. The ones that arrived today will go into droid # 2. (I mean, you really can't have just ONE R2 unit, can you?)

My attempt to adhere the door trim to the body of the door ended in failure last time. Once the parts were unclamped, they simply fell apart. After asking others on the R2Builders board about my experience, a few thoughts came across. One was that the silicone may have been bad, as it did not come out of tube clear. It was very cloudy and chunky, coming out of the tube like hardening toothpaste. The other thought was the temperature. The silicone is supposed to adhere at temperatures from 45F on up. Its chilly in the basement, around 50~ish.

At any rate, I tried again with LocTite brand clear silicone. It came out of the tube clear but it was a lot of work forcing the stuff from the tube. It also tended to drag the part along the table while I was trying to get it on the door. I went extra heavy, with both clamps and silicone.

If this fails, I'll go back to regular JB Weld. While not my preferred adhesive, I know it goes on thin and easily. You just have to clean it up quickly, as whatever is left there is there forever.

Its rather ironic how all these small details are giving me so much trouble. But the temperature in the shop makes painting, priming and using adhesives difficult. (I really envy those of you in warmer climates!)

Up next on my short list of things to do is to get my skins sandblasted. I have several run lines on my front skins, from the spray paint attempt I took last year. I also have a section that is paint free, from travelling in the back of a rental vehicle and rubbing.

From now on, the pros do the painting. No matter the spray paint brand, whatever I use, the nozzle spits and causes terrible run lines. I am just cursed to not use spray paint!

Trying Silicon on the door skins

Tonight I spent some time filing the rough edges off my skin panels around the door. All I really needed to remove where the few tabs from the laser cutting process.

Initially I was using those small files, as I had seen Victor use in his blog. But that noise had the cats hiding and me wondering how long I could stand it as well. So I pulled out the larger file and quickly smoothed the rough spots down in mere minutes.



After inquiring with others, I opted to use Silicon. The thinking is that if I absolutely have to, I can peel the pieces apart and try again. Its also flexible.

I noticed that the Silicon didnt come out of the tube easily, and it wasnt very fluid it all. Its like I was spreading dried up toothpaste. But I opted to keep at it. I spread it around as best I could, lined up the pieces and clamped it all up...

How well this will work remains to be seen. (I'm wondering if the Silicon I bought is a sealant?) My other choices were contact cement and Liquid Nails. Both are pretty much permanent options.

I'm going to let this "sit" overnight before I unclamp and see how this all worked out.