More and more new cars are being assembled with high performance adhesives these days. While seem sealer was being used as early as the 1950’s, it was sparingly applied back then. As cars have become more and more civilized, the use of seam sealer has become more and more prevalent. But new cars don’t just use seam sealer to cover welded joints, as they also use it to provide resonance control and more. And if you thought there was a lot of seam sealer in brand new cars, you might be confusing some of what you see because in reality there is a lot of adhesive in newer cars as well. Panel Bond, an adhesive used to attach metal and composite panels to each other and to the car’s main body, has become more and more common over the past 10 years or so. In fact, there are lots of cars who’s body panels are bonded. Quarter panels, for example, are often glued onto newer cars.
So can you use panel bond on your favorite classic cars? Could I install quarter panels on my 1969 Camaro with panel bond?
Is it actually strong enough? Or as strong as a weld?
Watch the video below to find out.
Video Description:
On this weeks episode of Restoration Revelations, we are going Myth Busters on ya. We have been getting questions on the strength of our No Weld Smooth Firewall Kits for 68 – 72 A-Body GM cars. So we are going to take the 3M Automotive Adhesive and put it up against a very common practice in automotive restoration, the plug weld. We have designed a test that will tell us just how much force it takes to failure on both the plug weld and the adhesive. Which one do you think will break first? The plug weld has been around forever, from Mopars to Fords or from Chevelles to Camaros, there is almost certainly some form of plug weld on your restoration. But lately as technology improves, so does the way we build cars. Automotive adhesive can be found on a lot of the modern muscle cars or import cars, and it’s strength is just as impressive as welding. So stay tuned and see who wins.
