Full boat tail on a Matrix

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

You know what's missing? 'Home Sweet Home' hanging on one of the sides
Looks great!

[arcosine]

I like your boat tail. If I had one on my car I could fit my recumbent bike inside. I have used the poly foam used to insulate pipes, slit in hal.f to seal around the sun roof for a plywood antenna stand. I compressed it with wing nuts. If you use a rubber seal, like for a garage door, it will rub and eventually wear the paint any way. If it was fiberglassed, then it wouldn't be removable or flexible. Silicone sealer might work if you used a thin piece of plastic sheet between the roof and tail, though it would be hard to get it off the paint, it could act as a plastic hinge.

[Weather Spotter]

What I have now is the foam pipe insulation and it never sealed real.well. its also about 3/4" higher then the roof right now. So I might redo the 6" closest to the car and foam the last 1/4 inch with backer rod or door dealer then silicone the top edge.

[JethroBodine]

At work we us Wurth brand sealer called "Windshield Weld" that seals everything. I could bring a tube with me if you don't mind waiting. There might be a place that sells the stuff around you?

[Weather Spotter]

Jethro, I did do some work on the tail but I never pass up free A seals everything tube might be handy to keep in the work shop for that moment when I need a sealer and do not have one.

Leak update:

since we have rain in the forecast for the next few days, and I do not want to get my nice new wood floor wet, I decided to get some work done on the car when I got home from work.

First I did some detailed examination of where I had issues. Next I decided where I might get away with using caulk and or caulk with backer rod ($4.19 for 5/8" x20'). I marked with red sharpy where I needed to do major work. The top has been annoying me since I built the tail. it never seems to want to say flat at the level of the car roof and sticks up 3/4". this forces water to build up at the joint causing minor leaks to turn in to big ones

I decided this area needed major work so I started there:

Old:

work in progress:


as I expected the foam was being pushed up by the hatch mounts, so when I made a wood piece to fit the hole I shaved down the back side over these spots to make to level.

ready for resin






the second coat I mixed in some sand to thicken the mix and help it fill in the low spot. this was my fist time mixing in anything to resin and it worked better then I hoped.






Done and silicone caulked:




I will have to wait to paint it, and there is rain for a few days so I think I can test it. I pray it will not leak, I sleep better dry

its not perfectly smooth but its better then it was and it should drain water.

[JethroBodine]

Aerohead says that form is better than finish. That works for me. Less sanding.

[Weather Spotter]

Who said that banded word for smoothing surfaces ? That's more work then I tend to put into my tail. I just put on the fiberglass, add a second coat of resin and spray paint.

Ok it would look better sanded but then I would spend days doing it only for looks.

[Weather Spotter]

well we had lots of rain all day. I only had a few drips in the tail!

at lunch I went looking for the cause of the leaks and found that I had 4 places I missed a dab of caulk, once the rain stops I will fix those spots. it also seems that one of my hatch screws was over tightened so I have a 4" small crack in the plexi glass. it has not gotten longer in 6 months and it the source of a small drip. will caulk fix this too? recommendations?

[arcosine]

Drill a small hole just in front of the crack, so it cracks into it. This will stop the crack from cracking further. You could seal it the hole with a small dab of something to keep drips out.

[NeilBlanchard]

When did you add the nose cone? Is there a thread for it?