Topic: 66 NJ - Front fender sealant?

[tomtri66]

Does anyone know what this sealant under the front fender is?  I have seen it several times on different cars and was wondering if this is factory.  If so, what the factory install technique was?  Was it applied to the top of the fender skirt or to the fender itself.
Thanks,
Tom

[bryancobb]

More than likely...just strip caulk.

[CharlesTurner]

Strip caulk.  Most likely applied to the inner fenders before fender install.

[tomtri66]

Thanks 

[67gta289]

Is it safe to assume that since the fenders were painted off body, and inner fenders black, that the strip caulk would not have any paint?  Also is it safe to assume that different years and plants would have used different caulks, observed by color if nothing else (such as texture), and that the lack of robots would result in an infinite variations on the volume of material used?

[J_Speegle]

Is it safe to assume that since the fenders were painted off body, and inner fenders black, that the strip caulk would not have any paint?

No assumption - that is the way they were painted (fenders) - off the car so yes the  sealant was added after the car was painted - much later in the assembly process

Also is it safe to assume that different years and plants would have used different caulks, observed by color if nothing else (such as texture), and that the lack of robots would result in an infinite variations on the volume of material used?

The product would not have changed because of how it was applied but who supplied it. Looking at allot of cars from different years and plants I've not seen a difference. All has been like thick strip chalking - very dark gray or black originally. Amount of application did not vary allot and workers tended to get in a routine so there is much more similarities than differences IMHO. Also consider that this task only fell to a very small number of workers from our understanding.

Of course other plants and years do not effect most of use - we only need to focus on what they did at the same plant and time the specific car being discussed was built