Im thinkin about doing some custom work to the roof of my CRX by welding the rain gutters smooth. Any tips? Suggestions? Comments?

 

Terrible idea. You will warp the **** out of your roof from the heat, not to mention the ten pounds of wire you will need to do it. Just use Bondo or, at a last resort, fill the gap with lead.

 

FIll the gap with lead? that will weigh more then welding it and if you cut a thin strip ove sheet metel about 1/16" small teh the gutter and weld that in it will just be two 6ft long single passes use real low heat and just be careful you should be ok. after its welded smooth it with bondo. if you jsut will the whoel thing the bondo will crack seeing as how teh body flexes at that point

 

Weld with low heat? Run a bead along the roofline and watch it warp like the Enterprise.

 

we do it all the time on show cars.
1. Get a Tig and Use it, Mig will suffice at a low heat tack weld situation
2. Cut sheet metals in to 6-12" strips
3. Barely make a puddle and stop
4. Grind smooth
5. Duraglass over
6. Finish with light weight
7. Flat line till smooth






Good Luck

 

I like the lines that the gutter gives . Just me or what?

 

i totally agree plus i like driving in the rain with my windows cracked its a bitch not having ac can we say foggy *** windows haha

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRXDrew &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I like the lines that the gutter gives . Just me or what?</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Howitt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">we do it all the time on show cars.
1. Get a Tig and Use it, Mig will suffice at a low heat tack weld situation
2. Cut sheet metals in to 6-12" strips
3. Barely make a puddle and stop
4. Grind smooth
5. Duraglass over
6. Finish with light weight
7. Flat line till smooth

</TD></TR></TABLE>

thats what i was going to suggest.

but i like them

 

and how do you protect the seam underneath the welded part from rust? You cant exactly paint it there.....


Modified by Flashmn at 5:18 AM 5/15/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Flashmn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">and how do you protect the seam underneath the welded part from rust? You cant exactly paint it there.....


Modified by Flashmn at 5:18 AM 5/15/2005</TD></TR></TABLE>

zinc rich weld through primer

 

DO NOT USE BONDO, it will crack out. I shaved them on my truck. I hate people saying you cant shave stuff on sheet metal, how do you think everyone else in the world does it? Theres a million trucks out there with shaved stuff. You just have to go slow and keep tacking it to keep it from warping. Just follow the guys writeup above and you'll be fine.

Yager-

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">zinc rich weld through primer</TD></TR></TABLE>
only problem is that primer is very poor against moisture... I know few chemicals you could put in there to prevent rust, the ones they use over here inside doorpanels against it. Waxish compound rustproofing, but you cant spray it in there from anywhere.

 

A couple things

1st: Remove the front and rear glass to prevent destroying the seals.
2nd: Cover everything! Use a think painter's tape and a thick material like carboard to cover areas you don't want any slag to go. It'll pit glass and screw up the paint.
3rd: Take time to let the welds cool by air. You don't want to use water to cool it as it'll cool too fast and warp that way. You can tack at about 6"-8" intervals to keep the heat away. when you go back to make an adjacent tack after you've gotten through the gutter, the original tack will be cool.

Another option would be to use Fusor, or 3M metal adhesive. It's extremely strong and is approved for body repairs by most of the major car mfg's. The nice part is that it's cool, so no warping.

 

FUSOR you need to overlay aproximately 1-2" and we have had issues with bleed thru with it and causing us to do repaints

 

If the entire thig is sealed off from the topside- including the ends - nothing will get underneath it to cause rusting. I welded one up three years ago and still no flaws. There is actually about an 8th in gap or bigger under the metal you weld in- could use undercoating kit- with the long thin tube(about the diameter of the red nozzles that go on like wd-40 cans)- to laod the underside full but i dont think it is realy goingto matter to much. With doors and rockers welds should be coated on the backside because they are exposed to the elements but with this nothing can get back there. thats my $.02

 

O ya- with the CRX i think the side rails- above the doors- stick up higher than the roof pannel itself. I could be wrong but i was thinking one of the hondas out there has this. If so you might have to pull the filler back onto the roof pannel a ways to get it to look right.
I chose to leave my gutters simply for the fact that it creates a line to paint from if a repair ever needs to be done. with the gutters filled - perhaps a dent on the quarter might require re-clearing the entire body- instead of just the quarter and rail.
For a show car...go for it