spray foam body work

Just thought I'd share. Though I would never advocate spray foam bodywork for a vehicle to you plan on keeping forever, it can be an interesting stop gap measure. My dodge truck needs to be inspected, and if you have rusted metal in this state with sharp edges, that can fail you. Well the under side of the rockers was rusted and rotted out. So I figure I'll spray foam it. Problem is gravity doesn't like that, as it wants to fall to the ground rather than stick to the surface. So what does a cheap a$$ like me do? Find some left over screen from replacing the screens on the house. Duct tape a the screen in place so it creates a "form". Spray the foam in, let it grow. The screen keeps it from growing too much. Pressure on the screen create a perfectly round form. Worked pretty slick. I was then able to remove the screen after the foam had cured a bit. It is almost a perfect mold. I love this truck, it never costs me anything. I've had it for two years, and I think including the purchase price, plow and parts I have no more than $2000 into it. It will probably blow up tomorrow.

I don't tend to keep cars for very long so I am always worried about performing, er, repairs, I guess, that will make the next owner invoke voodoo curses on me and my family.

This is always one of those that seems to come up. "I can't believe this DPO put window screening and spray foam in this broken bumper cover," or something.

I once bought a car which had the factory belly pan replaced with a big sheet of aluminum with a couple blocks of wood screwed to it to allow for the raised and lowered sections of the factory piece attached to the bottom of the car. I really didn't know what to make of it.

I once covered a 5 inch hole with wide packing tape and spray painted it to match. It passed inspection. I fixed it right later on.

Jack

When we went to inspect our chevy van for the 06 BABE rally most of the lower section of the van was rust through. Just happened to have a huge roll of white adhesive vinyl (van was white) we slapped that over the rust holes and no problems, it was actually hard to tell it was there.

Of course it all blew off somewhere around Virginia in the rally, but it served its purpose :)

Just an fyi, I will be the trucks last owner. It doesn't see a lot of road time, though it does tow the race car. It makes an occasional trip to the dump, and it plows my driveway, that is about it. I will drive it until it dies. Vinyl would have been a much better route for me. Damn, I wish I had thought of that, it would have worked quite well in this situation, though it wouldn't be a long term fix.