Guys:
A bead of sealant is no longer adhering to the inside of the right fender. I'm assuming I'll have to grind it all off and re-apply sealant. Any other repair methods? BTW the front clip is off the car and on a wood stand. If I have to re-apply sealant which 3M sealant do I need to use? Thanks.

 

Is that sealant rubbery, somewhat soft? Or rock hard? They didn't get much under the bonding surfaces on your car. Generally that would have been bonded.

I'm not sure what other restorers are using to bond panels with these days, but Lord Fusor was the product GM used ...and is still available. But there are a lot of panel bonding products out now. Probably any of them would work on your car. It would probably be a really good idea to remove it and re-do while you have the front clip off ..but work some under the mating surfaces. Once you rebond it but it's still soft, take your finger and make it smooth.

You could grind it away. But that'll make a mess and maybe leave grind marks if you slip. I've used wood-carving knives and gouges (cheap ones from H/F) to *carefully* remove old bonding agent in the past and they work pretty well w/o causing much damage to the fiberglass surface ....if you go slow. It depends how hard and "chipable" the bonding agent is. Tap the carving handle with a light hammer if needed. Most carving sets have half-round, scoop, and angle ("V") knives in the set. Each type kind of comes in handy. I also have a very small set (the cheapest ones) which are short and get into tight areas. They also work great for general bodywork in tight spots for digging out bondo, or seam sealer. Or if you have a sharp wood chisel, you could try that. May not work for you, but just throwing it out there as something I found useful.

Hope that helps.

 

Yeah, it's rock hard.. I'll try slowly chiseling it out.. Thanks y'all!

 

Try softening it up a bit with a heat gun also...

 

The heat gun worked great. I was able to get most of the old sealant off. I used the 3M 8218 sealant with the 3M gun. I also used some of the sealant on a broken passenger side fender grill.

 

.....and run your thumb down the seam and smooth out the sealant before it hardens ...if you can. Some products harden pretty quick. Have a guy there when you bond it who's job is to thumb-it-out ...give it that 'factory' look. Quicker than spending time tooling it with your head under the fender.