Somebody else jump in and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can clean
off the sealer stuff with mineral spirits after it dries. The mineral
spirits shouldn't hurt the paint either.
Terry Stellman
1949 3600
Missouri City, Texas
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hudson29@aol.com [SMTP:Hudson29@aol.com]
> Sent: Thursday, July 01, 1999 2:28 PM
> To: oletrucks@autox.team.net
> Subject: [oletrucks] There Is A Smart Way And Then There Is a Dumb
> Way . . .
>
> Because I am basically a lazy bastard, it is not unusual for me,
> when
> ramping up to do a job, to read all the shop manuals, then get all the
> parts
> and do a run through in my mind or with the actual parts where possible. I
>
> try to get the proper tools lined up ahead of time, and most jobs go
> reasonably smoothly, barring the "Unforeseen."
> One recent job was to fix the rusty old gas tank and replace all the
>
> related rubber bits in the fuel system. As anyone who has ever done this
> to
> an AD truck can tell you, the job is not too tough, and this one proceeded
>
> just about as expected until I got to the final finishing touch.
> The fuel filler pipe on the AD truck sticks out of the side of the
> cab with a big rubber donut around it sealing it to the cab sheetmetal. My
>
> original donut came off in one piece, but I bought a nice quality repop
> and
> wanted to install it on the freshly powdercoated filler neck.
> In eyeballing the job, an assembly sequence seemed to me to make
> sense, and all parts were trial fitted to ensure easy assembly. To make
> sure
> of a good waterproof seal, a fresh tube of black silicone seal was readied
>
> and the neck was slipped into the fresh rubber hoses and secured with the
> original factory clips, still in surprisingly good condition.
> I am always a little uncomfortable working with silicone seal. The
> stuff is difficult to wipe off cleanly and once it begins to set, there is
> no
> working with it at all. For that reason, I decided to smear the filler
> tube
> with the sealer just back where it would fit into the donut, fully
> believing
> that the easiest mess to clean up is the one that doesn't get made to
> start
> with. For the donut-to-cab seal, there was just no clean way to make this
> joint without oozing somewhat. I would have to rely on speed of assembly
> to
> allow me plenty of time to clean up the inevitable mess before the
> silicone
> seal became intransigent.
> As you might have guessed from the title of this story, all did not
> go well. The problem presented itself when I tried to squeeze the rubber
> doughnut into place. The filler neck poked through the hole as
> anticipated,
> but with the neck in place, there was no longer room to scootch the rubber
>
> doughnut enough to get the donut into place. Being a sharp cleaver lad, I
> thought I would just FORCE it into place and picked up a very large
> screwdriver already laid out within easy reach.
> The top two-thirds of the donut responded to force rather well, and
> for a while I thought I might just pull this off, but it was not to be.
> Now I
> am a big fellow, well known for having a strong back (and perhaps a weak
> mind) and in 40 minutes or so of life and death struggle, I couldn't make
> a
> go of it. I was frustrated, tired and I had made a huge mess with drying
> black silicone goo all over my skin, clothes, tools and worst of all, all
> over the truck.
> At this point, I stopped to reassess the situation. The original
> reason for the particular assembly procedure had been to avoid making a
> mess.
> In this, I had clearly failed. Now, I might just as well do it the easy
> but
> somewhat messier way, after all, I couldn't possibly make the mess any
> worse!
> First, I pulled the rubber donut and fuel filler pipe back off. Next, a
> new
> bead of the sealer was applied to the donut and it was easily popped into
> place.
> The fuel filler had to go into the donut from the inside of the cab
> and I was worried that it would push the donut back out of the hole in the
>
> cab so the neck too got a liberal coating of the slippery silicone goo.
> The
> filler pipe twisted into place easily! Retightening the hose clips
> finished
> the job.
> As to the mess, I'm afraid very little could be done. The more I
> tried to wipe it off, the worse the mess got. There is black sealer all
> over
> the paint and rubber donut, and although some of it rubbed off the next
> day,
> some remains still. Does anybody have any good way of cleaning this stuff
> off?
> If you are going to do this job, remember that the rubber donut goes
>
> into the cab first, then the filler neck goes in. It's the smart way.
>
> Paul O'Neil, Hudson29@aol.com
> 1951 Chevrolet 3600 Pickup Project, See it at:
> The Poor Man's Advanced Design Tech Tips Page
> http://home.earthlink.net/~conntest47/
> Fullerton, California USA
> AEROMARK - Need Rubber Stamps or Signs? See:
> http://hometown.aol.com/hudson29/myhomepage/index.html
> oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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