Just received the new Surefix catalogue. They are advertising a product called "Gripfill", described as a one part, gap-filling adhesive at £1.99 per cartridge.
Has anyone used this to bond ali panels to chassis prior to rivetting?

I have used it in building work, it dries very hard and I think it may crack under vibration

Your best best bet is a polyurethane sealant - the most expensive is Sikaflex, but there are loads of alternatives at lower prices.

Very strong adhesive, slightly flexible and easy to use. Downside is that it hardens in the tube within a couple of weeks of opening the tube!

cheers,

David

Thanks for the information.What are the"alternatives".Save me scouring the shelves.

Damn! I hoped you wouldn't ask me that question, as I've forgotten their names!

Keep looking here - someone is bound to post a few alternatives.

DJ

I'll be fixing the floor panel in the next few days. Any opinions about 'No More Nails'? Is it suitable?

I did a Google on "polyurethane sealant uk" and the first hit was:

http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/Sundries/Mastics_and_Sealants/

Look down a few lines - not a bad price!

I didn't bother to look at the other search results.

I wouldn't use No More Nails myself - I don't think it will stick to ali very well (but I'm SURE someone will tell me I'm wrong!)




David

Tiger seal is about half the price of Sikaflex and has the same properties.

yours, Pete.

no more nails is rubbish and pete,i thought tiger seals were a protected species

OK the NMN is binned.
Here's the next idea - anyone tried Loctite 5221? It's a single-part PU adhesive/sealant with 24 hr curing time.
....or Geocel Joiners Mate which is PU moisture-curing in 5 minutes. Sounds a bit quick.
These are both in the RS catalogue.

I've primed the underside of the chassis but I guess the sealant needs clean metal to work best.

You don't want the moisute curing one - it's designed for wood! When it contacts the wood, the moisure in the wood causes it to harden very quickly, unless you've got moisure in your steel, it's not going to work.

Kingr

Used Loctite 5222, the white version of 5221, for all panels. Worked really well even on painted surfaces, easy to apply, but its a good idea to degrease all surfaces.

Thanks guys. Loctite it is.
Good point about the moisture cure

Follow up:
So I've used Loctite 5221 (Grey, about £6 from RS).
It took about 95% of the cartridge doing back panel and floor. It stays tacky and squidgy for about an hour.
This was quite useful because the (borrowed) pop gun exploded with three rivets to go
175 rivets in one go probably exceeded its design spec.
OK, so I'd extended the handles to make life easier and probably, maybe, perhaps, contributed to events...

Fortunately nothing had broken so rebuilt it and greased it and the b****y thing worked even better than before!
Now on to the bones...

Personally thinking of using an aerospace product called PRC - don't know the 'civvy' name for it (or availability)but it is a 2 part rubber sealant type compound you could use to stick bridges together with.......

Bloody awful stuff to use and even worse to get off but it does an excellent job...