Club 80-90 Forums

Has anyone used Panel adhesive as an alternative to welding? What were the results ? Is it a good enough permanent fix eliminating the need for welding totally on rear wheel arches?
I do appreciate the preperation of the surfaces would be the same i.e good clean metal , not rusty brown crap .

Is it easy to work with? I assume it gives better sealing properties between the seams than spot welding would do. I am on a bit of a budget and removing the need to purchase new mig welding gear would certainly help the finances. It wont help me with my under window rot but I can do a temp bodge on that (sorry for swearing) until after the summer.

I wouldnt just use panel adhesive myself. I would always weld and then seam seal the seams. Where are you im sure there would be someone willing to help you weld in new rear arches.

There's a company in Brackley that has been glueing panels on VW's and other vans for 18 years... never had one fall off or come back.
3M do the best adhesive, I'll try and find the e-mail they sent me for the name/number of it
unless you want to e-mail them yourself?

Personally panels are just decorative not structural and welding is over the top in most cases
glueing panels has a lot of advantages, I have delved into this but thought it rather an expensive method, and that is the only reason I chose not to do it.

I can see advantages to using panel adhesive but surly welding is better for example if your doing a tall rear arch it can be butt welded, with panel adhesive wouldnt it surly have to be overlapped?

I don't know the methods of fixing panels, so I can't comment on that.
I can only speculate that as this has been available to do for many years I dare say that there are methods to overcome problem areas.

The glue used is incredibly strong, I have seen it being used first hand... most impressive as the panel is worked as normal then just when you think the welder is coming out... the glue gun does.
The compound also seals the seam and disperses water/moisture as it is applied.

The compound also seals the seam and disperses water/moisture as it is applied.

2 jobs in one. sounds interesting

I may do one side to see how good it is then decide whether to redo it and weld. Depends on what horrors I uncover when I remove the arch but it doesn't look bad, just seam rot over the arch.

Yes, used it for a complete rear corner panel on a T25 pickup

Used seam sealer mainly not really the correct stuff, but its good enough

Lower valance flange (horiz join) eventually vibrated free (or was bashed) but you'd never loosen the main panel enough to worry about losing it. The trick is not to adhere it under any stress, it must sit where it wants to - mainly without jamming or flexing it into place! Not saying don't clamp it up with moles or anything else, just don't twist ior bend it under stress, get it to fit well naturally and all weill be well. If in doubt, a few blind POP rivets where flanges are accesible will do, or even set tappers

Can save a lot of hassle (and distortion too, when welding)

My brother is a big Aston Martin fan and (i think i'm right in saying this) apparently they don't weld anything, they glue everything - including the chassis. Some weird green stuff ....

I'll ask him and see if I can find out what it is.

I'm interested in this too. I'm planning to put a massive patch on my roof, to block up the former pop-top hole. I have a section of roof from a donor van, but am dreading trying to weld it in without distortion. Wouldn't want to lose a massive section of roof going down a motorway though!!
I think there are two types of this stuff...a single pack and two-pack. The single pack stuff sounds similar to normal seam sealer but the two pack stuff is probably some kind of epoxy.

here it is
and some info..

http://www.automotivetoolsonline.com/3M ... 10016.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



I think this is the American product Number, I guess 3M would give you the UK code

Asked my brother about the Aston Martin stuff but he doesn't know what it's called. Probably something of their own making. But apparently, it's 7 times stronger than welding ...

Maybe if you offer to buy a car off them, they'll slip you some for free ...

I'll consider the aston lol. For the sceptics on here , the wings on the Eurofighter are bonded with similar stuff to this so it is proven to be stronger than welding in certain situations.

such as bombing the "pooh" out of countries for their oil ...

or not as the case may be ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13081691" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Of course if there is anyone on the site in the Southampton area with welding knowledge who is prepared to have a look then It wouldn't be the worst thing to happen in my life if they got in touch