Quote:
Originally Posted by chromaglow
I was going to seal from the inside first so I could paint and then seal the outside later.
Basically, because the outside wasn't going to be ready to seal I thought I would seal inside to hold things temporarily.
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If you use a sealer like Dynatron-550 (the only one I recommend - because it's the only one I've used

), you can apply it to bare steel or old paint and then paint over it later on (like, weeks or months later). I would just seal the outside because there's not really any reason to seal both the outside
and the inside and it would save you some work and money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chromaglow
Question? I was planning to use 3/8 blind rivets to secure my metal sheets to the structure in addition to the tack welds holding it now. Is this a bad idea? Is there a better rivet to use that can be put in pneumatically? People keep saying blind rivets leak because they are not solid. SO I was thinking I would have to seal around each one, any idea about this?
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I assume you mean 3/16" rivets? 3/8" pop rivets are pretty monstrous (if they even exist). Open-end blind rivets will of course leak through the middle so you don't really want to use those (although I suppose you could goop up the opening with sealer). Closed-end blind rivets will not leak through the center, but they might/will still leak around the rivet and through the rivet hole itself. The proper technique is to put them in "wet", which means you put a little dab of sealant around the rim of the drilled hole, then place the rivet and pull it and wipe off the excess sealant that squeezes out around the edges. Not really very difficult to do at all, just slightly messy.
For riveting body panels, if one panel overlaps another you want to run a bead of sealant underneath the edge of the panel on top, such that you get "squeeze-out" of the sealant when you pull the rivets joining the two panels. With a seam done like this, you get a layer of sealant pinched mechanically between the two panels and you are not reliant on the adhesive properties of the sealant to keep things watertight. If you've already tacked the panels in place, though, this won't really be possible.
It does seem that solid rivets are inherently less prone to leaking, but I don't really have any experience with them other than helping BrewerBob put in a few of his. They can be (in fact must be) applied pneumatically (with a different type of gun), but you need a helper holding a bucking bar on the opposite side of each rivet, so it's not a one-person job.