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ShinyPete · 01-18-2015, 02:19 PM

What a great product name! Some time back when I was researching how to seal the 109

bucked rivets on our Pete's roof I found a couple of threads mentioning this product, but none titled as above. So for easy searching, here is my report.

I just spent 3 hours over two lovely central Florida afternoons (sorry, I had to) cleaning and sealing around the like 109 rivets on the roof of Pete. Just like Captain Tolleys says, clean the surface, apply the product, and re-coat in 30 minute intervals. Since our coach is still pretty new (a 2014 27FB delivered in Nov '13), I figured 2 coats would be enough. It only took moving and going up/down the stepladder 36 times.

Why did I do it? Am I crazy? Bucked rivets don't leak! Well, coming from a tpo/rubber roof RV world, I know that anywhere water stands on the roof can be a leak. That's why many tpo/rubber-roofed rvs have bulges in the sides and soft interior walls. The water gets stuck in the roof corners due to poorly designed drainage (read none) and it has to go somewhere, oftentimes finding it's way into the wall.

As I admired our Airstreams wonderfully curved roof, I noticed early on that there are all these rivet dimples that can/could/do hold water when it rains. As we use our coach quite a bit, it gets wet when we camp and it's not in it's barn. Hmm........ What to do. Captain Tolleys at least helps me feel better about water sitting in those dimples. If this stuff wicks in say 5% of those rivets, maybe water could have, so why not? I figured if the dimple had dirt in it, it had water in it right? And yes, anal-retentive needs a hyphen.

The pictures explain how it looks before, going on, and ending up. Carry on fellow Airstreamers.

dznf0g · 01-18-2015, 03:01 PM

It's great stuff! I keep finding uses for it. Most recently, I found one of the spirit levels on a laser level had lost it's "spirit". Although I couldn't see the pinhole causing the stuff to evaporate, I drilled a small hole, refilled with Ethylene Glycol, plugged the hole and went over the "seams" with Tolley's. Not only did it seal my work, but the milky wet color showed the original crack, which it sealed.

thesignlady · 01-28-2015, 07:25 PM

Here's another girly use...I broke a fingernail but only partway. I used captain Tolley's to hold the nail together. Worked for about a week before I finally snapped it off when I slipped pulling a wrench in a tight area. The captain Tolley's stayed on my nail bed until it grew out. ☺

Wingeezer · 01-28-2015, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesignlady

Here's another girly use...I broke a fingernail but only partway. I used captain Tolley's to hold the nail together. Worked for about a week before I finally snapped it off when I slipped pulling a wrench in a tight area. The captain Tolley's stayed on my nail bed until it grew out. ☺

Would "crazy glue" work for that? (cyanoacrylate glue)

Brian.

Phoenix · 01-28-2015, 10:51 PM

Cyanoacrylate adhesives are not waterproof. When water is added, the adhesive crumbles apart.

Years ago, when "superglue" was new, we had a Loctite representative visit our printed circuit board manufacturing area to demonstrate a thick version that could be used to stake jumper wires and parts to a PCB.

He told everyone how in the early days of cyanoacrylate adhesives, people frequently glued their fingers and parts, etc. together; and they used to go to the emergency room to have their fingers surgically separated.

As a demo, he glued two of his fingers together on purpose; and then he demonstrated how to separate them. One way was to insert a pencil between the fingers near the palm, then just unzip the fingers apart using the pencil. Alternately, he showed how to soak one's fingers in water and just keep wiggling them until the superglue disintegrates.

One story he told that made everyone cringe was when he was doing a demonstration and removed the cap from a superglue bottle with his teeth. Yep, you guessed it, the cap came off while he was squeezing the bottle tightly and pulling; and he got a mouthful of superglue. He said he had an anxious half-hour sipping hot coffee and talking out the side of his mouth.