My drip rails where the roof meets the driver and passenger door could use some dressing up. The chrome trim is in good shape however pieces of the drip rails are either missing or not entirely smooth. There is no rust and they are painted pretty well. Overall paint job on car is in pretty good condition. I bought dynatron seam sealer from advance auto parts and want to know if this is the proper seal to apply and pint over? I don't want to start the job with ought asking what is the best way to adress this. I also bought color matched spray paint.
I used your basic automotive paintable seam sealer from NAPA (just as the factory used) around the drip rails. When using seam sealer, anywhere on the car, I prime the area first to seal the bare metal, seam seal, then top coat. Please upload a picture just to be certain we are talking about the same area.
Yes...we are talking about the same area and I would definitely clean that up before I painted the car. A heat gun, a small scraping tool, and some patience will get out all the old sealer. Make sure any surface rust that may be underneath the seam sealer is cleaned and treated as well.
Any body shop and most auto part stores sell the automotive seam sealer. Get the one in the tube. I taped off the area along the roof that I didn't want the seam sealer on as well as to get a nice even line. Here is the trick and others may have a different way of doing this. Apply the seam sealer around the drip rail channel and avoid getting to much on the tape. Smooth out with your finger then remove the tape. Before the sealer dries dampen a cloth with Prep All (cleaning solvent) and then go over the sealer again smoothing it out. It will come out really nice.
Believe it or not there is a certain amount of skill involved in seam sealing a car in areas that will be seen (at least if you want it to look good). So practice a little on a piece of scrap metal if you are uncomfortable.
You can do it that way but you should definitely protect the chrome trim, either by taping it or removing it. A wire wheel will tear up your tape so you will need to be careful. You can try putting on a couple of layers to protect the chrome.
What's nice with the a heat gun and scraper is you can usually take large pieces of the sealer out at once but either method will work.
this may be a silly question but how do I know if there is sealer under the paint or actual metal? It's hard to tell since some parts of the drip rail are in tact and painted nicely. Also will the tape protect the car paint from bubbling with the heat gun?
Okay...good questions and I will give you my honest answers. I have never tried to reseal a drip rail on a car that is already painted. Can it be done...sure it can. How good it comes out depends on your own skills. If you are uncomfortable with the heat gun because of the paint, then I would not use it. If you want to clean up the work that was already done, then maybe a Dremel tool and a steady hand can get into that area to take down or remove enough sealer so you can re-apply a more consistent and smoother application. The difficult part is removing the sealer without chipping, melting, or scratching the surrounding paint then blending the paint to match the existing paint.
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