Topic: 67 San Jose Splash Shields and Rubber

[Bossbill]

I kinda hosed up the last thread on 67 splash shields, so let's try to limit this thread to 67 San Jose only splash shields.

Front wheel well splash shield -- rear (towards cowl)
As you might know from this thread:
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=2498.msg75344#msg75344
it appears SJ is different than other plants as Jeff has many documented examples of rubber seal being applied to the back side of the rear splash shield. Other plants tended to apply the rubber to the front of the shield.
Note that back means you cannot see all of the rubber as the rubber is applied to the splash shield on the cowl side of shield.

My 67 SJ parts car built on March 6 has the rubber applied to the rear.

It appears that the rubber used on the left shield is identical to the rubber on the right side, only flipped horizontally.

Front wheel well splash shield -- front (towards bumper)
The left metal portion of the shield has a different shape and size than the right, so the rubber is not interchangeable.
There is a filler piece with 5 holes that is interchangeable left to right.

Rubber material
I believe the rubber material used was a styrene butadiene rubber infused with cotton thread strips which gave it its rough texture.

I've included a pic of a very degraded sample in which the threads now show through and what I believe is a very nice sample from a used rear shield.
Please let me know if my "nice sample" is incorrect.

I've only lightly touched on a few areas. I thought this might be a good place to start the discussion on just the 67 SJ-only cars.

[J_Speegle]

Couple of pictures to help illustrate

Front splash shields

7R1680xx



7R1915xx



7R1927xx 

[J_Speegle]

Couple of pictures to help illustrate.

Rear splash shields

7R1129xx . This first example highlights the thin notched rubber flap orientation



7R1164xx




7R1883xx



Late built car


Unknow VIN

[Bossbill]

As usual, great pics Jeff.

Since I have two SJ cars in 7R180s range (with, as noted, one with its original shields) this is very useful.

[Bob Gaines]

Thanks for the input. I wondered why I found no signs of paint on it. I seem to be missing the driver's side one, not sure why it hasn't surfaced with everything else yet. I did do a light Phosphate & Oil on it for protection at least in consideration of the rusting away factor. It can be painted easily enough.

Should there be sealant between the shield and the body, like strip caulk? (I keep meaning to look in the Assy Manual).

I have heard others discribe of the strip type caulk between sheield and body however I don't trypically find any caulk/sealr other then the spray on sealer used .Probably best to get a conscience of opinion .

[67gtasanjose]

Assembly manual states 1 .20 diameter strip caulk-like sealant should be between the rear shield and the body. I have no notes on such in my memory or pictures I have looked at.

2nd, the bracket at the bottom, a.) does it mount behind the shield between shield and body or in front, more visible
                                              b.) should this bracket be painted, I found no paint on the one I found, seems I am missing one too!
                                              c.) I may be looking for that missing one if I don't one day stumble onto it (left side).

[J_Speegle]

Assembly manual states 1 .20 diameter strip caulk-like sealant should be between the rear shield and the body. I have no notes on such in my memory or pictures I have looked at.

2nd, the bracket at the bottom, a.) does it mount behind the shield between shield and body or in front, more visible

San Jose did use some dark gray/black strip chalking along that seam for at least part of the year. Below are a few examples.

It was applied over the spray on earlier applied (and painted over) seam sealer. Can come off (stuck) with the splash shield or remain on the body during disassembly. Sure a few cars got skipped.

Not enough to typically be very visible along the whole seam, top to bottom it seems. Once the front fender was installed and sound deadener was applied even less chance IMHO

7R1330xx




7R1639xx




7R1883xx






Is this the bracket your asking about? The forward lower fender to body bracket?

[J_Speegle]

1.) Is there anything supposed to be between the splash shields & the cowl like strip caulk?

Yes it appears (posted about this earlier today with pictures) there was but in many cases it isn't very visible and rarely the full length. Then once  you add some ( a little or allot)  sound deadener over some of that area it becomes even less visible.

Other thread
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=16578.180/index.php?topic=19443.msg141216#msg141216[/url]

2.) Should there (typically) be any overspray patterns from the sound deadened that WAS VISIBLE and reproduced (as seen in my pictures attached) onto the shields and/or attaching hardware? This question applies to the wheel side of splash shields AND the hinge side of the splash shields.

Yes on the front (facing wheel) side but the back side towards the hinge could not be reached with the fender in place. Those seams would have been sealed with sprayed on sealer in a tight narrow band then painted over with body color. After the wire loom and radio were added (before the front fenders installed) a worker came along with a very small applicator of black spray/splatter sealer and tried to seal those holes and pass-throughs

Repost of the rear splash shield chalking from the other thread

[67gtasanjose]

Yes it appears (posted about this earlier today with pictures) there was but in many cases it isn't very visible and rarely the full length. Then once  you add some ( a little or allot)  sound deadener over some of that area it becomes even less visible.

Other thread
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=19443.msg141216#msg141216



Yes on the front (facing wheel) side but the back side towards the hinge could not be reached with the fender in place. Those seams would have been sealed with sprayed on sealer in a tight narrow band then painted over with body color. After the wire loom and radio were added (before the front fenders installed) a worker came along with a very small applicator of black spray/splatter sealer and tried to seal those holes and pass-throughs

Repost of the rear splash shield chalking from the other thread

Pictures are helpful, thank you.

Spray sealer over the speaker wire harnesses and factory installed radio antenna wire would be like, or the same as the sealer used under hood at the "connect-the-dot" spray pattern over all items that penetrate the firewall, does this sound correct? ...and no sealer on the door penetration (speaker wire/convenience harness) only spray the a-pillar penetration (speaker wire/convenience harness)

Last, I was going to ask this at a later date in my build thread but is there a tried and proven product (name brand or generic) for this spray sealer. It looks like undercoating spray to me.

[bullitt68]

The lower bracket at the bottom of the rear splash shield is more typically painted black from my observations .Maybe some were bare but more typically painted IMO.Given the exposure location a bare metal bracket will quickly degrade.

Thanks Bob good point. I had originally phosphated mine, then saw the bare unpainted metal version. I will repaint mine

[bullitt68]

I have heard others discribe of the strip type caulk between sheield and body however I don't trypically find any caulk/sealr other then the spray on sealer used .Probably best to get a conscience of opinion .

I also meant to ask as I was told to install the fender skirts after the fenders are installed, but it sounds like they should be installed before the fenders are mounted after the sound deadener & body color has been applied. I thought that the shields get sound deadener overspray on them, but sound deadener is applied before body color.

I found this in the '67 San Jose Unibody (Undercarriage) Article in the library

"The inner fenders in the wheel wells and radiator support were typically fully painted from the top lip of the panels to the bottom edge of the frame rails. Fading away below and behind the firewall section there. At the rear edge on both sides the black normally stopped where the rear splash shields would later be attached."

"Once the car was completely assembled, minus the front wheels and tires, sound deadener was applied to the front wheel wells to seal out water and reduce road noise. Typically the minimum application of sound deadener to the inner fender panels was a single diagonal pass of the application wand (all of this applied from below the car in the pit) from around the front bumper bracket attachment point to the top just in front of the spring cover on the front inner fender panels. Product on the spring coveris not typical but there are examples of product if the car was one where the worker applied a heavy much fuller coat that time."

"On the rear inner fender panel from just behind the spring cover diagonally down and reward towards where the frame and the firewall section come together. Multiple passes along this firewall section was done at the same time. This firewall application would normally spill over onto the rear splash shield out towards the seal to fender meeting edge.
Often an additional application was made on the back side of the head light bucket of the fender and front splash shield. Workers were instructed to seal the splash shield to fender meeting edge but it was not always done fully"

[J_Speegle]

NOTE: I moved the last few posts over from another thread since it was in a Member Restorations/Builds  and the responses will been seen by a wider group viewers over in this section. Both threads had converged on the same subject and we're posting the same information basically

I also meant to ask as I was told to install the fender skirts after the fenders are installed, but it sounds like they should be installed before the fenders are mounted after the sound deadener & body color has been applied. I thought that the shields get sound deadener overspray on them, but sound deadener is applied before body color.

Never found a worker that could answer if the splash shields were installed before of after the fenders in 67 but there are indications that in 66 at San Jose they were installed before the fenders. In the end product I don't think it makes any difference which came first but adding them after often works better. You need to arrange how the rubber "flaps" or shields face before the sound deadener needs to go on

Agree with Bob on the finish of the lower froward fender brackets as being semi-gloss black and not plated or left bare steel

[J_Speegle]

Pictures are helpful, thank you.

Spray sealer over the speaker wire harnesses and factory installed radio antenna wire would be like, or the same as the sealer used under hood at the "connect-the-dot" spray pattern over all items that penetrate the firewall, does this sound correct? ...and no sealer on the door penetration (speaker wire/convenience harness) only spray the a-pillar penetration (speaker wire/convenience harness)

May be the same product. can't be certain. Need to correct myself and clarify that this was not applied to the passenger side on this year and at this plant typically.

A pillar or cowl side but only to the drivers side as shown in the pictures below.  Upper left - allot applied and fairly close producing sharper edges and runs . Lower right - lighter application producing the spider web look around the edges

Last, I was going to ask this at a later date in my build thread but is there a tried and proven product (name brand or generic) for this spray sealer. It looks like undercoating spray to me.

For the A pillar application a rattle can rubber based black product should work if you can get one with the right nozzle and technique to reproduce the look. Often it's a combination of product and technique - both necessary to get you to the goal. To get a similar look years ago I used a rubberized paintable (though it didn't need to be ) black Bondo undercoating in a rattle can . Don't recall if I modified the nozzle

[Bob Gaines]

[quote author=J_Speegle link=topic=19443.msg141252#msg141252 date=1589676013 Never found a worker that could answer if the splash shields were installed before of after the fenders in 67 but there are indications that in 66 at San Jose they were installed before the fenders. In the end product I don't think it makes any difference which came first but adding them after often works better. You need to arrange how the rubber "flaps" or shields face before the sound deadener needs to go on
[/quote]     I agree that the splash shields install better when done after fenders are installed. I also agree that regardless of if shields were installed before or after the fenders were installed the sealer applied to the shields/area looks the same and covers any trace of which way it was done. Although a nice academic endeavor to try and figure out which was installed first the most important aspect is how it ends up looking when it is done. At least as how it applies to concours judging.

[67gtasanjose]

It may be a bit difficult to install the left (drivers) side splash shield with the fenders already on. There are 2 attaching screws (center 2 of 4 used) that go through the splash shield into the cowl, from behind the shield. I am not sure there is any way to easily access those 2 with the fender in the way. The passengers side, these same (center 2) screws go the other direction (through a hole in the cowl, into the splash shield), at least making it more feasible to accomplish with the fender in place. This situation would suggest (to me at least) that the rear shields were installed PRIOR to the fenders. The front (smaller) splash shields I would agree, would probably be easier after the fender was already mounted.