How bad are they? I could pull mine away from the roof but they were pretty much still there. I ran some painters tape along the bottom. Ground a wooden craft stick to the contour of inside the gutter. Mixed-up some J-B Weld and kept putting it in. I can now grab the rain gutter with a couple of fingers and rock the car. Have never driven the car yet. Don't know how long it will last. But it does seem very solid. Gene.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=835123 Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Tinbender, no it's not a joke. It seems to have worked very well. However, mine were only bad in a couple of spots. That's why the first thing I asked was how bad his were. You are more than welcome to come and see for yourself. Gene.
I don't remember whose build thread it was but somebody on here had to repair the metal behind the drip rails on a car while shaving them and walked through making the patches. Weld in new metal as needed and then install your new drip rails. A clean donor car would be nice to find because you could remove everything together and install and reseal the drip rails once on the car and painted. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Are you talking Model A or 56 Chevy? It's gonna make a world of difference since they all are put together differently. Tell us what you got and post some pics of the problems.
Sorry, I guess I was confused. I was under the impression this site was all about doing what you can yourself. And not about paying someone to make your car perfect. I am a mechanic, not a body man. So I do what I can with what I have. Would I expect a body man to do what I did? No. Am I happy with how it turned out? Yes. Was I telling Dirty Dave to do it this way? No. But he did ask for ideas. And this one worked for me.
I have seen guys make them using round brass stock and then shaping them to the correct shape and tack welding them in place. I must admit when they were done they looked like the original thing. Just saying!!!!!!!!!!! Jimbo
YIKES!!!!......WHEN DID THIS BECOME A FORUM TO BASH EACH OTHER?.....atta boy alphabet, this is fine, depending on the type of car your doing, driver....and not trying to pass it off as a virgin ,pristine, $20,000 paint job custom. take a pill you guys. rain gutters are a pain at times....epoxy repairs can hold up , with proper prep work, ...of course full metal ,fab n weld is more permanent. but also a crap load more work n more of a chance to make a mess. USE YOUR JUDGEMENT, and don't bash anyones help
Has anyone brazed them? I havent brazed in 30 years but it seems like an idea. These gutters are all there, but bent up. I'd like to make them better than original. 49 F1 is not mine and a no budget build so I was looking for ideas.
I have repaired or replaced some using different methods. If they are a true gutter you can find or make tooling the correct width of the inside and work it with a body hammer along the length to get it back to the right shape. I have also used duck bill plyers or grips to help reshape. In extreme cases you can remove and replace damaged sections. Obviously you would need some donor parts and it will require welding and some body work. I just did this very successfully on a 2door Malibu Wagon conversion I am working on. If it is a drip edge type rain gutter, you can repair or replace by shaping it with the proper size steel rod or tubing. Again this option involves welding to the top and doing body work to smooth out the welded area. I did this on a 37 Chevy Pickup that I made into an extended cab. I put an old pulley in my vise and used it to bend the tubing to the shape I wanted. Welded it on the truck and did the body work so it looked molded into the top. Not an original design for 37 but very similar to a design used in 33 and best of all when I drove the truck in the rain with the window open, my design worked.
I can offer a fairly easy fix that we did on my pal Steve's '40 sedan. The previous owner shaved the rain gutters off and separating the top from the body was deemed too much work so we opted for replicating what resembled a drip rail,,think 33/34 Ford. It turned out great and works extremely well at keeping the water at bay. This is the thread. HRP http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146469&highlight=rain+gutters
I found some curved angle iron that looked close to what I had . so I just replaced both> I know I will get crap for this but I found it at home depot
I realize that most of us are not capable of great metal forming & body work, certainly not me. But, here is a link to a fellow who graciously shows how he does drip rail repairs. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86935
In tinbenders defense, he didn't attack people who can't do bodywork and don't wanna pay for it, he made a comment about one posters response about jbweld and Popsicle sticks. Let's drop the petty crap before this turns into all drama. The OP got a few answers and some links. He is capable of deciding what he wants to do for himself... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I don't know about the rest of you guys but I am not a pro builder but watching guys like tinbender and trying things I had never done helped me step up my game. We all know there is a right way and wrong way to approach anything..metal work doesn't happen over night. I went from screwing sheet metal to the floor to cutting out the rust and welding in patch panels. Personally,I want to do the very best I can possibly do. HRP
Sorry I offended a few of you. That was not my intention. Restoration is not easy. It's far more difficult when complicated by crappy repair attempts. Even worse for my customers when they unknowingly buy some patched together piece of shit, and I have to explain why the restoration cost just went up dramatically. I've read more than a few post here from people that have found themselves in just that situation. I feel these cars we work on and own deserve respect. If your going to try to restore one, have enough respect for the car, and yourself to at least attempt to do it correctly. If you don't know LEARN. The information is out there. It's a huge part of what this board is about. I apologize for any feelings I hurt, but not for my opinions related to quality and pride in the work that we do. I will now delete all my post in this subject.
[QUOTE="T'RANTULA";9485723]Now I remember why I stayed away for so long...[/QUOTE] Hell, I haven't been on here more than two months and somehow...sometimes... I've gotten that same vibe.
to defend both ends of the conversation i have to repair as many previous repairs as i have to repair the damage of time and elements but the previous "repairs" are the reason the car is still around. recently i repaired a chevy rain gutter by grinding off the rotted, pinch weld, welded the protruding rain gutter to the roof and used a thin steel rod to duplicate the "beaded" edge of the pinch weld. ground the welds down and finished it.
Just to clear up something I said in my first reply. I used a contoured craft (popsicle) stick to apply the J.B. Weld. Not to hold the pieces together. I will be signing off here now. Except to also say that I may have gotten a little too defensive. And to say I am sorry this happened on Dirty Dave's thread. Lesson Learned!!
You are apologizing for nothing...to my way of thinking you got jumped all over for absolutely nothing. Course...that's just me.
I remember a thread where a guy made a progressive die to roll new gutters. He pulled the strip of metal through the die with a come-a-long. Anybody else remember this? Blue
Yeah, that one goes back a few days ! You can also make pretty good dril railing with a sheetmetal brake, or jus forming 16- 18 gage crs in small pieces in a vise, and bending them over pieces of wood cut to the shape you need. And what's with everybody gettin so thin skinned 'round here? Shit, you guys wouldn't hang in the shop I work outa, if you're thirty minutes into your shift, and haven't been mother fuckered, it'a a slow day! " Humpty Dumpty was pushed "
I think a few here are missing the point of the site,,traditional hot rods is what it's all about,teaching & learning. HRP
yeah I remember that thread. Pretty cool maybe I missed it but knowing what vehicle required the repair would be helpful in determining the repair method. I've repaired gutters and shaved gutters and they aren't all the same. Early cars often have an applied rain gutter that is not the junction/attatchmwnt point of the roof skin, inner structure, quarter window etc unlike say a mid thirties and up car where this is most often the case.
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