Has anyone here used the Eastwood aluminum fortified filler?

[volaredon]

As title says.
I'm wanting to tie this to both my thread about the truck cab, and the other guys thread about roof rust repair. I have a few better pix of my situation but I still couldn't get pix of the underside of the roof lip to come out. I tried outside, I'm wondering if I put a light beneath the lip if that would help or hurt in getting them to show up like id want them to. For now I'm going to post round 2 of then outside of what I'm dealing with I hope these are better but the damage looks worse from beneath.
As an update I went to the Eastwood store this morning and talked to them, fully expecting to come home with lead working supplies.
The guys there said that they could sell me exactly what I asked for but suggested their aluminum fortified body filler as a better alternative. It's raining now so I can't pull it out and try again for underside pix, but I will when the rain goes away. I've watched the Gene Winfield video a few times and he makes lead work look easy. Though his video shows it being done on a wide open fender not in a corner like mine is.
I plan on welding in the holes you see with the MiG and a copper backup bar, the underneath layer has more hiles in it that don't continue thru the outer layer everybody will see... Not entirely sure I shouldn't just run a bunch of weld beads from underneath the gutter, I admit I'm not a body man but am wanting to do as much as I can to learn, as well as to keep the paint jail bill down, while doing the best job that can be done.

 

[volaredon]

My first attempt at pix was taken with the cab inside the garage with lights above, on. They came out too blurry to tell anything. Would taking them in the garage with a light pointed upwards at the underside of the drip rail help or hurt as far as getting them to come out so you guys can see? It's definitely worse underneath.

 

[E7polyhachett]

I can't help you with your blurry pictures Don,
but as you are very aware that on these Dodge trucks the factory seam sealer gets dried up and hard, and let's water in between the upper roof skin and the drip rail. My brother and I have done one of these roofs, and what we did is spot weld drill the upper top skin loose, and cut out the rusted area of the skin, (cut out just minimal with a cutoff wheel using a 1/32 thin wheel). Save the cutout piece for later. Then if their is rust between the drip rail itself, cut a section out of the driprail, where there is rust between the upper windshield frame and the drip rail.
The drip is spot welded. I would use a dremel with a grinding wheel to cut out that drip rail section. After a through cleaning, just reverse the process. Someone in your area should have and experienced guy that can make you a new skin patch, hence saving the rusted sheetmetal skin piece. Once all welded back in, fill in the roof skin piece using an aluminized filler called USC All Metal. We use this as a first, and sometimes a second coating before body filler. DO NOT put any all metal in the drip rail channel! We use either a
Sem 2 part self leveling sealer, but 3M has some too. This stuff is excellent! The only hold back is you need the special gun to apply it. Most any body shop has one they can loan you with a deposit, so you will return it to them. Just take a medium coarse wire wheel and clean out the whole channel. It will be worth your time, trust me. Good luck to ya.

 

[Kern Dog]

People will criticize those that spread body filler over rust.
I get it, the right way is to cut out the rust and patch in clean metal. It is a valid repair that will likely outlast the owner of the car.
However....
I've seen some Bondo over rust jobs that have lasted for years and only discovered a LONG time later.
It isn't the perfect solution but if you don't have a welder and if the vehicle isn't something super valuable, so what?

 

[jos51700]

I don't want anything that is chemically reactive with iron, and aluminum is just that

 

[volaredon]

Yes I actually have 2 mig welders one with gas and just recently acquired one without the gas, but rather flux core setup (though it will accept a gas bottle and normal mig wire)
I have enough welding work and time that I went thru a whole 125cf bottle of 75/25 myself , before I sent the cab that's in the body shop, there. But I'm willing to write that off as a learning experience if it results in a better job overall.

so then I can remove the drip rail without removing the top/outer skin? I saw a few spot welds from beneath. I see where the front edge of the drip rail actually folds over the roof skin... The body shop grunt did suggest they could cut the drip rail off the first cab and graft it onto the otherwise better cab... The original cab I was gonna use also has damage under the rail but that part isn't as bad ... Though it's holey further back in the horizontal flat section of the roof.... I have 2 cabs and a complete roof off of a 3rd.... of the 2 cabs the damage off the otherwise "better" one is confined to the drip rail itself. The cab that the body shop currently has is the one with holes in the flat part... but a better drip rail area. That cab came from the factory with clearance lights, the one I have at home and the "roof only" never did.
If I use the cab that the body shop already has, I'm probably going to have them fill in the clearance light holes. It's getting to be a tit for tat deal as I have already swapped out the trans tunnel in the cab at the shop. I'm gonna have to either cut that one out and transfer it to the one I have at home (they don't want to) or hit the junkyard and get another wide tunnel and graft it into the cab I have here. They'd rather do roof sheet metal work (though they said they will not cut the roof off and swap that out even though I have that as well....) Id rather do floor pan work because I can hide that easier than patching in holes in the roof.... And feel better that it will be water tight.., last time I talked to the shop owner he said he would use this cab if I picked it up, brought it home and swapped trans tunnels. For some reason he doesn't want to do that sort of thing.
I don't want to cut up the roof I have here to sacrifice parts ... If I use that I want to use the whole thing. I have other reasons for wanting to use the cab I have here at home.

 

[volaredon]

And no I wouldn't be just applying filler over rust. I have a spot blaster here that I was gonna blast the drip rail top and bottom with before I do anything else with it. And I have ospho, and a bottle of the por15 phosphoric acid here as well that id treat it all with before I put anything on there. Then I have 2 cans of Eastwood rust encapsulator with the long flexible plastic straw to soak the innards of the roof with thru the sun visor holes and the done light hole the best I can...so it would be clean roughed up metal before I put anything on it...

 

[volaredon]

Ok brought up from the dead.
I finally had a day off of work, warmer temps (hey 40s, man!) and some daylight. I drained my blaster cabinet and strained the glass beads from it and put them in my pressure pot blaster. I wire wheeled all the seam sealer I could out of both sides of the drip rail on the extra roof panel I have, and then sandblasted it with those glass beads. I didn't realize all the garbage contained in those beads, as they fall back into the bottom of the blast cabinet I strained out a bunch.
And today I picked up a fresh bag of glass bead for the cabinet.
. It's by far my best vs the existing roofs on either cab, the top side of the drip rail and roof skin is great, just pin holey underneath. Very obvious once blasted and sitting upside down on a set of horses.wuth a solid top skin there's definitely a good "backer" to keep the molten lead from simply just falling thru.

I had taken that aluminum fortified "Bondo" back to Eastwood the last trip there, and after seeing this I went back for what is gone up there for the day they talked me into that aluminum fortified Bondo in the first place
I bought the supplies to fill in that seam Gene Winfield style, and by that I mean to use lead.

I've sweated alot of copper pipe over the years and "get" the idea I believe. It looks real similar and another you tube thing I saw even referenced that fact. So I'm gonna experiment with this spare roof I have and depending on how that goes I may try and fix the existing roof on my "military" cab before I get the sawzall out. That one is worse than the spare roof but nowhere near as bad as the roof off the other cab I have in paint jail. Ideally id like to use the cab I have at home.
Also anyone have anything to say about the lead substitute (bismuth based instead of lead based) does it lay down the same as lead? Can I inner mix if I run out of lead bars? How well does that stuff hold up?
And last for now who knows what about another product in a can called " lab metal"? I acquired a cam of that as well, but I didn't get any hardener with it. Is it used as is out of the can? Where would be good to use that stuff?
With this spare cab roof I have upside down there is a " trough" about 1/16" deep I could fill flush with the bottom edge of the drip rail and not be "seen" once truck is together.
Once that seam is filled in I have a few spray cans of their "rust encapsulator " with the long wands and a quart as well. I'm thinking about pouring some of that quart in and getting some help to swash the roof panel around to get that stuff in all the nooks and crannies while I still have the roof off and upside down.