Newell Gurus

Newell uses sikaflex also, its "the stuff"

Bill,

Let us know what Newell does. I have a few small strips that have done the same. the strips are just below the slides.

I would only point out that Sika is a company producing many products. Be sure to do your research and pick the product that matches your appellation. The engineers at Sika will help you chose which of the many Sikaflex bonding products should meet your needs. Russ

My door was damaged prior to my purchase. It was delaminated along the edge. At the time I couldn't find an adhesive that would hold. I ended up just riveting the perimeter with solid rivets similar to what Newell did on earlier models.

I want to tell you about my bay door skin reglue project this week. First, several of the doors were loose enough that I could remove the skin from the frame. I scraped off the old adhesive tape with a wall paper scraper and caulk remover (goof off). It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I used G Flex from West Marine. I didn't use clamps. What I did do was lay the frame on a flat table, I put on the epoxy, and then the skin. I simply filled five gallon buckets with water to get the skin to lay flat against the frame.

What I really want to tell you about is my goofy mistake, with hopefully a great long term outcome.

On one of the doors, I only noticed a small gap at one corner, so I filled a syringe with the G flex and squirted it into the gap. Applied some pressure and let it cure overnight. A couple of days later, the other corner of the same door has now pulled loose. I suppose tightening one corner put pressure on the other. Well OK I thought, don't patch it again. Pull the skin off, and do it right. I could get all the tape loose but I COULD NOT get the three inches where I used the epoxy loose. Not hammers, not wedges, not exorcisms would get that corner to budge.

I hope I don't ever have to replace the skins where I used the epoxy.

I have played with some good stuff over the years, I was in the carbon fiber business for 7 years and had access to the really high end resins. But that G flex is the toughest epoxy that I have ever used.

Having messed about with epoxy-wood boats for several years here are a couple hints. From Richard's experience it appears that you don't need to wet-sand the initial coat of epoxy into the metal - but you may choose to do this for increased strength. W.E.S.T. the maker of Gflex also makes fillers that the epoxy can be mixed with, one of those is a fiber gap filler. If you have coated the surfaces with pure epoxy you can then slather on a mix of epoxy and fiber gap filler and the surfaces don't need to be perfect - as long as the gaps are filled you will be fine. Another aspect of epoxy is that you don't want to compress the joint during curing; the guidance from West was to just hold the parts together in a way that leaves the epoxy filling all the gap but minimizing squeezing out. If you have further questions the WEST website is full of great information.

Forest,

Here are some pics from my re-skinning at Newell.

Note how the belt-line trim is attached.

Cheers,
bill

Thanks Bill, that is extremely helpful. Does the trim slide sideways to clear what looks like a big fender washer in picture one?

Richard,

Yup! Totally ingenious and very unexpected. No glue, no sealant, no nothing. It slides on the washers then there are surface screws at the ends. Note, that due to grit and gunk, it may not slide easily. They are using a rubber mallet in one of the pics to encourage it.

bill

Bill, glad Newell fixed you up to your satisfaction.
But I'm surprised they used the Norton urethane adhesive in the corners. Reading on Nortons webpage the urethane is used for plastic panels. They recommend the acrylic adhesive for metal bonding.
I appreciate you posting this, lots of good information here. Especially how the trim piece attaches!