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Patching Aluminum

Froneck

Titanium
Joined
Dec 4, 2010
Location
McClure, PA 17059
I purchased a storage that was a on a truck similar to a U-Haul 8' X 26' for storage. Nice condition BUT has what looks like a forklift fork hole in the side about 4' from bottom. Most of the Alumunum is there so I can straighten it as well as possible, put an Al. backer and with some pop rivets to close the hole. Not very big, not sure if I can put my hand thru it but it will be close. I plan to put some heat in the box, it's insulated so some heat to keep it above the Dew Point that will keep machinery and other items from rusting therefore I want to seal it as well as possible.
To seal the hole, is there a Bondo type body putty that will stick to Aluminum??
 
I purchased a storage that was a on a truck similar to a U-Haul 8' X 26' for storage. Nice condition BUT has what looks like a forklift fork hole in the side about 4' from bottom. Most of the Alumunum is there so I can straighten it as well as possible, put an Al. backer and with some pop rivets to close the hole. Not very big, not sure if I can put my hand thru it but it will be close. I plan to put some heat in the box, it's insulated so some heat to keep it above the Dew Point that will keep machinery and other items from rusting therefore I want to seal it as well as possible.
To seal the hole, is there a Bondo type body putty that will stick to Aluminum??

Surely. But if the f**ker is out in the weather?

Screw the sort of elegant finish as I enjoy on the all-aluminium Jaguar!

Just use the gummier adhesive sealer as stays flexible that the RV outfits use so their roof don't leak nor road-spray carry salt into the overlap and degrade the patch and rivets.

Apply WITH your rivet job, wipe it up, it need not even show much at the edges. Soon DONE and paintable "enough" you but choose a PAINT that won't peel right off the aluminum with temp changes. Never wondered why a Greyhound bus or a vista-dome railcar went running about bare-naked?

"Temporary paint" was a Ferrari trick. To keep painters in work. Or change the colour each go ... so you could pretend to have more cars?

:)

Regardless.. Taj Mahal a recycled U-haul box will be, never.

I'd prolly open it UP.... and put a porthole or opal plastic in there. And/or another in the roof.

Too cheap to pay for any more lighting than bare minimum.
 
If you can force the sides back into near alignment (hammer, dolly), the edges will likely overlap due to stretching happening just before piercing.

Makes the welding easier.
 
some flextape?

NOT "flex" rather.

Nashua. Uncoated. Made for commercial-grade HVAC duct seams. The GOOD ones.

Don't be home without some. Teeth-resistant. Might have to restrain some asshole until the Sheriff can come by?

:)

The cheaper all-metal has a silly clearcoat that weathers-off and looks raggedy-ass.

So does the fabric, possible exception GI-issue OD Huey-bird helicopter bullet-hole tape. Yes. That is all they got. To keep the rain out of the fancy-parts. Or water-resistant black rad-hose tape.

Sat shot of a vent on my roof ..... if the resolution is good enuf'

"We all live in glass houses .." thing.

:(
 
Many things will stick to aluminum.
They will not stick to aluminum oxide.

When you get ready to finish your repair:
scuff[scotchbrite or whatever]
Clean[alcohol]
add bondo adhesive sealant

KEy: all within 15 minutes

IF the phone rings, you must start over at the beginning

I am a fan of sikaflex if using sealent for a metal patch.

If doing body work to make it invisible, regular bondo ought to be fine.
 
I would not use Bondo as polyester resin putties are not completely waterproof.

Instead, I would use a steel-filled epoxy applied immediately after roughening the surface with coarse sandpaper to remove oxides. Many years ago I Pop-riveted an aluminum patch on the aluminum head of a roof rake, also using steel-filled epoxy to reinforce the patch. The repair has held up over many winters of raking heavy snow off the roof. The aluminum had cracked after a very hard use against partially frozen snow.
 
I would not use Bondo as polyester resin putties are not completely waterproof.

Instead, I would use a steel-filled epoxy applied immediately after roughening the surface with coarse sandpaper to remove oxides. Many years ago I Pop-riveted an aluminum patch on the aluminum head of a roof rake, also using steel-filled epoxy to reinforce the patch. The repair has held up over many winters of raking heavy snow off the roof. The aluminum had cracked after a very hard use against partially frozen snow.

Scott? It ain't but a freaking unplanned air-hole in a salvaged metal box!

I never wasted THAT much effort when I trashed another Zero-Halliburton! Just bought a new one.

This case? Goop - cookie sheet - and four self-tappers - is all it needs. Would not even waste time FINDING my pop-rivet goods. Nor bother cutting the 'loominum to size. Bigger than the hole? So f****g what?

I KNOW where the uber-durable metal-foil tape is.

:)

This s**t can expand like unto a rons "make work" project.

Electrical enclosure. Open knock-outs. Pop a stock code-compliant filler plug -solid OR vented - in? NFW! Too damned EASY!

He cuts steel disks. TiG welds them into the holes. Grinds. Bondos flush. Sands. Paints it. Makes a production of posting on PM how clever and pretty he is.

Meanwhile? A brand-new Weigemann box is dropped on my doorstep in two days from Zoro for $25 bucks. And all I did ... was add "NK" suffix to the SKU... for "No Knockouts" ...and put the hole(s) I wanted into an already painted box!

Make this repair TOO complicated? No longer a bargain.
Frank would be ahead to just move-house and not NEED the box!
He'll sort it. No excuses. Frank ain't even NEAR Kalifornickyah!

Oh... ""ice rake"? Snow on the roof? Too old for that s**t.

Few times it actually MATTERS? Hit a timer.
$90 worth of 3 KW or 5 KW "garage heater" up in the right spot?
Slides right off on the water now UNDER it. I don't even leave the house.

Annual power cost? Too little to bother measuring. Not as if the home wasn't insulated to a fare-the-well the REST of the winter, is it?

Beside.. how better to test-load a 10 KVA MEP-803a on the cheap and predictable?

Health risk surely would be a LOT more than that pair and a run of wire & c. cost me, though.

:D
 
I would not use Bondo as polyester resin putties are not completely waterproof.

Instead, I would use a steel-filled epoxy applied immediately after roughening the surface with coarse sandpaper to remove oxides. Many years ago I Pop-riveted an aluminum patch on the aluminum head of a roof rake, also using steel-filled epoxy to reinforce the patch. The repair has held up over many winters of raking heavy snow off the roof. The aluminum had cracked after a very hard use against partially frozen snow.

Frankly, i dont think a steel filled adhesive is a good idea on raw aluminum. I'd go for a toughened epoxy like this Jamestown Distributors
 
Frankly, i dont think a steel filled adhesive is a good idea on raw aluminum. I'd go for a toughened epoxy like this Jamestown Distributors

C'mon. 30 bucks a tube, two-part, and best for Teak?

This is not a new need! It's an already OLD and well-established INDUSTRY:

Adhesives for Trailer Assembly

8 dollah tube at any Big Box ... if what you need (a Silane was mentioned specifically, but lots of stuff JFW) is isn't ALREADY under-roof.

This is a non-demanding, non-structural area on the SIDE and up-high.
Not a roof. Not an underside sprayed with gravel, grit, and road-salts, no longer subject to vibration, buffeting, high-speed winds over the road. No water pooling, near-perfect drainage, rather.

Soon done. Even ignorant foil & butyl TAPE could last ten years.

Guy sez: "anybody got a match?"

Next thing yah know?

He's draggin ass out of PM's door with a lowboy loaded with a muffle furnace, flamethrower, heliarc, rosebud, TiG rig, tire hot-patch rig, thermate charges, shiney-wood foundry, rolling mill, explosive hydroformer, self-piercing rivets, and an industrial laser -

and the stickyback "eat mo' possum" vinyl decal as will ACTUALLY be used to do the dam' JOB!!

"Match?"

Not since Rube Goldberg up and died, we haven't had a "match", no!

:D
 
Thanks guys, I'll try to work on it this weekend. Most of the surface on the box is Aluminum unpainted or possibly some type of clear coat. Aluminum Tape will probably look best. I can seal the patch then cover with tape. Want to keep out rain. Seems we don't get rain anymore, it down-pours! Not cats and dogs, elephants and gorillas is more like it! Frank
 
Thanks guys, I'll try to work on it this weekend. Most of the surface on the box is Aluminum unpainted or possibly some type of clear coat. Aluminum Tape will probably look best. I can seal the patch then cover with tape. Want to keep out rain. Seems we don't get rain anymore, it down-pours! Not cats and dogs, elephants and gorillas is more like it! Frank

No s**t. 42 square of "Reinke Shake" sitting here, paid-for.. to go up-top.

Their website has a TRAILER covered with the tough mini-corrugated bastids, BTW!

:D

About as hail and wind resistant as anything affordable. Not that "affordable" resembles "cheap".

Just that I'm certain to punch-out with a roof still so good that my widow can still get a good price for the house!

Priorities change in that last quartile heading for the century mark! Could was the last roofing project I can still do ... and not fall-off and break by fossilized NECK off the back of dodgy sense of BALANCE!

WTF.

Too old to shag, teach hand-to-hand combat, or Morris-dance.

Gotta do SOMETHING challenging! Ain't up for dying of mold on my ASS!

Or being seen Morris-Dancing! There actually were a few things in life I gave a clear-miss, after all!

Damned few.. but still..

:D
 
it's a damn box truck body?

Pop-rivet it, with roofing tar (the repair stuff from a can) between the parts, and a generous oversize on the patch. Ought to do fine.
 
In the aviation world, common method on floats was to use a two part flexible fuel tank sealer compound... sort of a cross between an RTV and an epoxy. Can't remember the brand name. Was 20yrs ago now, and the guys are all gone.
 
In the aviation world, common method on floats was to use a two part flexible fuel tank sealer compound... sort of a cross between an RTV and an epoxy. Can't remember the brand name. Was 20yrs ago now, and the guys are all gone.

If this thing flies....:nutter:
 








 
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