Topic: Front & rear sealer and fender aprons - 67 NJ

[sparky65]

The seem where the frame rail meets the inner fender aprons were they sealed before or after paint? Also the bottom of the shock tower was there sealers in there. Was the undercoating on the fender aprons applied before or after brake lines and suspension were installed?

[CharlesTurner]

The big seams were sealed before paint, but I would recommend priming the metal before applying seam sealer.

[J_Speegle]

.................. Was the undercoating on the fender aprons applied before or after brake lines and suspension were installed?

Remember this is sound deadener not undercoating. Using different terms (sound deadener = factory, undercoating = aftermarket

After - basically (for the front wheel well) the car was complete and only the wheels and tires needed to be put on is the stage you want. But based on the typical patterns not much if any sound deadener got on the suspension or the fuel lines from my observations as they most often stayed away from those areas in general. If course a drip or overspray now and then could ahve happen with ease


Welcome.

[thefordshow]

I've found a wide range when it comes to front inner sound deadener. some got a lot and some very little. Heres some pic's of a '68 dearborn car with spring and some of the control arm sprayed. 

[J_Speegle]

I've found a wide range when it comes to front inner sound deadener. some got a lot and some very little. Heres some pic's of a '68 dearborn car with spring and some of the control arm sprayed.

The upper picture has to be the winner of the most I've ever seen from a plant. And with 90,000 pictures that is saying something 

Got a few with sound deadener on tie rods and or the adjusters but not much with coil springs or A arms

Thanks for sharing

[sparky65]

After - basically (for the front wheel well) the car was complete and only the wheels and tires needed to be put on is the stage you want.

I think this is interesting.  Why would the factory apply sound deadener at two separate places on the production line.  For rear wheel wells i understand sound deadener was applied before paint.

[CharlesTurner]

I think this is interesting.  Why would the factory apply sound deadener at two separate places on the production line.  For rear wheel wells i understand sound deadener was applied before paint.

It was done at 2 different places in assembly because of the effectiveness of each application.  By waiting until the fenders were on, the sound deadening process only required one application.

[J_Speegle]

I think this is interesting.  Why would the factory apply sound deadener at two separate places on the production line.  For rear wheel wells i understand sound deadener was applied before paint.

We don't always understand why - IMHO my current task is to identify what they did and reproduce it

You also have the seam sealers that went on before the sound deadeners  (front and rear wheelwells) that you don't want to forget either

[sparky65]

We don't always understand why - IMHO my current task is to identify what they did and reproduce it

The only reason I asked is I go back to a photo I took after removing the undercoating and sound deadner from my rear wheel wells.  And I wonder if some where along the line the process wasn't streamlined at certain factories.  After the gunk was removed you can see where the exterior color was on the inner and outer wheel well.  Now maybe that is becouse the sound deadner didn't go that far but the undercoating done at the dealer did cover the area.  What do you think?

You also have the seam sealers that went on before the sound deadeners  (front and rear wheelwells) that you don't want to forget either

Now those seam sealers.  From what I found while removing stuff from the front wheel wells.  The shock tower to fender apron had the light color seam sealer like what was used on the cowl lip.  The other seams might of had the black brushable stuff.  The problem is there sound deadener, seam sealer, grease, and undercoating all kind of blended together.  Especially inside the shock tower on top of the frame rail there was a lot of gunk in there not sure what should be there though.

[sparky65]

I've found a wide range when it comes to front inner sound deadener. some got a lot and some very little. Heres some pic's of a '68 dearborn car with spring and some of the control arm sprayed.

Your last picture seams to show no seam sealer along the frame rail.  Would that be correct for NJ as well?

[J_Speegle]

The only reason I asked is I go back to a photo I took after removing the undercoating and sound deadner from my rear wheel wells.  And I wonder if some where along the line the process wasn't streamlined at certain factories.  After the gunk was removed you can see where the exterior color was on the inner and outer wheel well. .................

First Steve thanks for being so persisent.   We (I) forgot what year and plant we were dealing with and till you posted the pictures I didn't recall it was a NJ car. It does appear (Tim L has been helpful at pointing this out from his experiences) that NJ did do things a little different from the other plants for a few years. Go figure


At least in 67-68 NJ does seem to have applied BOTH front and rear wheelwell sound deadener applications late in the game - applying the rear wheel well sound deadeners after the exterior color.  Currently I have not been able to tell if the pinch weldes were done before or after this step

Sorry for the confusion but thanks for hanging in there

Your last picture seams to show no seam sealer along the frame rail.  Would that be correct for NJ as well?

By seam sealer I'm guess you mean the spray on sound deadener since seam sealer was often applied and wiped or in some plants and years shot in a concentrated narrow pattern to seal a specific seam


IF so this just might have been a worker that did not put as much effort and time in to the application as others did. I recall a 67 NJ car (7T01T22xxxx something) that was in the shop a few months back and there was sound deadener overspray onto the rear frame rails similar to what we see at the other plants

[thefordshow]

I don't think that the amount of sound deadener and exact location of the black joint sealer [usually painted over] is the same on every car. I've seen the black joint sealer in the torque box/fire wall run as high as the top of the appron and along the frame rail to the bottom of the battery tray. I've seen the sound deadener that was sprayed to the inside of the 1/4's done horizontally and vertically.  JMHO, but I don't feel that it was a high position on the line ,[done by humans] quality control was not high on the list in this area.

[J_Speegle]

Hey sparky65 - got an opportunity to look at a white 6 cylinder, automatic, PS, period aftermarket AC,  NJ coupe today and do some investigating and gathering. With the same black top as yours in the picture.

It's a rust free Calif car (came out here when it was one or two years old)   Rear wheelwells are completely different from what you found (will post some pictures)  - body color over sound deadener similar to a 69  NJ Mach I i scrubbed and scrapped the rear wheelwells of a couple of weeks back..

And it has a projected build date of Oct 22

Cleaned the wheelwells and floors in sections and took some pictures. Might get another day with it before it leaves.

Hmmmmmmm - Just thought I would share.

[sparky65]

I would love to see the pictures when you have time to get them posted.  I wonder what it means.  How much sound deadener  was in the rear wheal wells?  Since mine was undercoated the one thing i couldnt determine was if those areas where i found body color actually ever received sound deadener.  This could get really confusing.   

[J_Speegle]

OK Here are some shots of the rear wheelwells

Also in three sections we removed a little sealer or sound deadner to determine what, if anything, was below


Rear wheel wells Drivers side - Oct 66 - 67 NJ Mustang











Front wheel well examples Sorry not as clean as the rear wheel wells