Nice looking caulk joints

[JohnK]

I'm about to start attaching sheetmetal, so I'm wondering if there's a trick to getting nice, clean bonded joints. Normally, when I use silicone or caulk around the house I'll tape both sides of the joint with blue painters tape, then lay down a bead of caulk, smooth it, and then peel up the tape leaving a nice clean joint. Is that what folks are doing on all the caulked joints when attaching sheet metal, or do you just wipe off whatever squeezes out? What's a good solvent to clean up silicone that's safe for powder coat? I'm really hoping to avoid making a huge mess that I have to figure out how to clean up down the road.

Edit: I'll throw in a bonus question here. Now that all the sheet metal is back off the frame and at the powder coater, it seems like the perfect time to drill the roll bar mounts, as things are wide open back there at the moment. Any reason not to do that at this point?

Thanks,
John

[edwardb]

Use enough silicone to get decent coverage between the pieces. But not so much that's it's squeezing out everywhere. You don't want or need a bead or filet of silicone outside the joint. For whatever squeeze-out there is, I've had the best results by first scraping off the majority with a small putty knife or my go-to 6-inch stainless ruler. Then I've found Goo Gone Spray Gel (https://googone.com/goo-adhesive-remover-spray-gel) does the best job of anything I've found to clean up the rest of the silicone. There are several variations. I've found the gel one works the best. Our local Home Depot carries it. It won't hurt the powder coat. I use it for a lot of other clean-up too. And please do clean up the squeeze out. Everywhere. I see pictures of builds with adhesive squeezed out and left there. Makes my internal OCD meter go crazy.

I've always done the roll bar drilling once the body is fitted, holes adjusted as needed, etc. I don't find it particularly difficult to reach the locations for drilling. But that's just me. Could be done now I guess. One caution without the sheet metal it's not obvious what location or angle might be best.

[j.miller]

Use enough silicone to get decent coverage between the pieces. But not so much that's it's squeezing out everywhere. You don't want or need a bead or filet of silicone outside the joint. For whatever squeeze-out there is, I've had the best results by first scraping off the majority with a small putty knife or my go-to 6-inch stainless ruler. Then I've found Goo Gone Spray Gel (https://googone.com/goo-adhesive-remover-spray-gel) does the best job of anything I've found to clean up the rest of the silicone. There are several variations. I've found the gel one works the best. Our local Home Depot carries it. It won't hurt the powder coat. I use it for a lot of other clean-up too. And please do clean up the squeeze out. Everywhere. I see pictures of builds with adhesive squeezed out and left there. Makes my internal OCD meter go crazy.

I've always done the roll bar drilling once the body is fitted, holes adjusted as needed, etc. I don't find it particularly difficult to reach the locations for drilling. But that's just me. Could be done now I guess. One caution without the sheet metal it's not obvious what location or angle might be best.

Great info I would just add that when you get a little excess squeezing out that you want to remove... spray it with Windex before you scrape. The Windex wets the area around the bead and causes a skin on the silicone so that it scrapes off cleaner. Also spray it on the scraper you are using. Every time you clean it, spray it again. It's a trick I used when I had my auto glass shop for cleaning up seallants...daBat

[Sdonnel]

Unlike edwardb, I drilled my breeze bar mounts with the body off. Keep in mind, when you drill the holes, visualize how much room you will have to install the bolts when you get to that point ( where the sheet metal will and will not be). Like edwardb said, it can be done without too much fuss, but I liked the ease of working without the body.

Scott

[rich grsc]

You aren't caulking a shower seam!! As said before just a small bead of silicone, there is no reason to put on so much that it squeezes out. The only thing that really causes damage to powder coat finish is brake fluid.

[Jeff Kleiner]

You can clean up uncured silicone caulk with isopropyl alcohol.

Jeff

[JohnK]

Thanks everyone!

[edwardb]

You can clean up uncured silicone caulk with isopropyl alcohol.

Jeff

Agreed that works well too. Just try to find some in the stores right now though. If you haven't tried the Goo Gone Gel, you might want to give it a try. Works just a little better in my experience.

Great tip from daBat on using Windex. Going to try that one.

[JohnK]

Sorry - I'm back with more caulk questions. Yes, I do have a tendency to overanalyze.

I had briefly considered going with something like Bostik 1100FS as an alternative to silicone, but the overwhelming consensus here is that silicone is definitely more than good enough, readily available, and inexpensive so that's good enough for me.

Now.. which one? I'm on the GE sealants website. They have Silicone 2 under both the "window and door" and "kitchen and bath" sections. From what I understand, the only difference is added biocides in the K&B version to prevent mold and mildew. I assume that's irrelevant in our application so just pick whatever color works best, right? I also see that they have something called "Supreme silicone" which claims to have higher adhesion strength than silicone 2. It's available in clear, which seems like it would work fine. Any reason not to go with this, after all... who doesn't want more adhesion strength, right? Is going with clear an issue vs a color that matches the powder coat? If so, they also make a version of Silicone 2 for gutters that's available in metallic grey, which would match my PC well. See... I told you I overanalyze.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Clear Silicone II on every one I've built:



https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-Silicone...-Caulk/3084963

I've found no need to change.

Jeff

[rich grsc]

Spreadsheet and powerpoint presentation is needed to make this kind of decision.

[JohnK]

I'm on it!

[edwardb]

I use exactly the same one that Jeff posted. GE Silicone 2 from my local Home Depot. I've found color doesn't matter if you get the joints tight (the way they're supposed to be...) and all excess cleaned up. Clear is a good choice.

Overthinking it? I'd say yes... Just please, no PowerPoint.

[JohnK]

Hey! That looks like me right before I start to overthink the fact that I'm overthinking my overthinking.