>If my logic is correct, Triumphs were painted with a baked-on enamel at
>the factory.
>So anything painted body color had to be heat proof. Methinks the cars
>went through the paint booth (and the ovens) with all fixtures attached
>except brightwork, drivetrain, suspension, (anything with fluid in it),
>interior, etc.
>According to jonmac, the cars were pulled through on a trolley. (makes
>sense)
Just imagine a totally raw body structure, devoid of anything other than
the areas that had to be painted inside and out. That's how they were -
just one big lump of pressed tin and they rattled more than a cold diesel
engine.
BTW, it seems to me from various threads over the weeks that a lot of
people are rather unsure of how 'advanced' or 'backward' Standard Triumph
were on assembly as a whole. I'll be happy to try and answer anyone's
queries on the "Sciences of Manufacture." Just ask.
>Hmm, anyone know if the factory put any sort of sealer between the fender
>and the body? I've heard of "Bostik or a similiar compound" but I could
>be wrong. Maybe it's unaffected by high heat.
Malcolm and anyone else facing this sort of work......
Perhaps at bit more input from this end on the way they did it. Yeah,
"Bostik" but that was a black gungy adhesive used in upholstery and trim
and not heat resistant so it couldn't go through an oven as it was
petroleum based. I guess most people will be familiar with panel overlaps
where it appears some sort of gungy substance has been applied before the
body was painted and wondered how it got there? A few weeks ago, we were
talking about a product called 'dum dum' - remember the thread? Well, this
stuff under the paint isn't Bostik and it's not Dum Dum - it's (wait for
it) Blackjack and just the sort of thing not to get near a pair of white
cricket flannels or a bride's dress.
Sticks like the proverbial in the fashion of the unmentionable!
Triumph used it broadly like this.
During body assembly, the facing surfaces on body joins were daubed with
Blackjack and then as the surfaces 'kissed' and were tighted in place,
there was a certain amount of ooze from displaced blackjack.
A light coating of a slightly thinner form of blackjack was then daubed
over the join to sort of smooth it off. It never cured in air but certainly
cured in very high heat (which is was supposed to do) and remained fairly
soft for quite a long time afterwards - six months was not uncommon. Then
it set like flint.
I don't know whether blackjack is still used in UK. I spose it must be but
probably a better version though its not available in shops and I can't
comment for Murica.
There is however an interesting alternative that I think would work quite
well and it was mentioned to me the other day by a visitor at HMC who was
rebuilding a TR5 and wanted to get a tight seal over these joins. He used a
product you can buy here in hardware stores for repairing cracks in
builders roofing felt (gritted tarpaper). I used it myself some years ago
to repair a leak in my garage roof and it certainly did the trick. It comes
in strips about a foot long and three inches wide and has to be hammered
hard to soften it and make it pliable. He used this stuff, claimed it to be
very successful and said he found it easy to trim off the surplus with a
craft knife. He hammered the stuff quite thin (I think it must be some form
of asphalt) cut the stuff to size, put it in place and then tightened down.
Seemingly no chemical reaction with new paint being applied on top of it
either - so it might be worth imitating his example? Hope this helps
John Mac
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