Aluminium body cracks

petemick

26 March 2012 at 06:20 #48847

We have finally finished cleaning all the old paint from the body of my De Ville. Some cracks have propagated from the corners of the sun roof. I propose using one of the strong bonding glues now evailable to glue the ally to the wooden frame. Has anybody tried that?
Some advice on painting ally from scratch would be appreciated

Attached files

DavidLG45

26 March 2012 at 16:27 #48848

I imagine there are cracks in the corners because there is stress there? Welding would be the best solution.
David

DavidLG45

29 March 2012 at 12:53 #48867

Some useful information on painting here: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/body-filler.htm
Click on the link at the bottom of the page for subsequent painting stages.
Important to get all that old filler off first.

Peter S30

26 April 2012 at 06:22 #48982

I personally think some 2 component epoxy resin or other modern glue is a good solution if some aluminum sheet is put under the cracked corner to hold it together and glued against the old metal. This distributes forces to a larger area compared to welding on a line or two in 75 year old aluminium, probably corroded in the cracked corner.

DavidLG45

26 April 2012 at 10:02 #48983

I would imagine there is the ash frame under the area forming the opening for the sun roof? In fact he mentions gluing it to the wooden frame. If this is the case it wouldn’t be possible to get any aluminium behind. Unless there is steel edging underneath there probably isn’t any corrosion? If there is corrosion I would cut it out back to sound metal and TIG or MIG a patch in. Gas welding will probably burn the ash excessively.

David