Every car owner out there naturally desires a clean and undamaged vehicle.
One of the ways to ensure that the exterior of your vehicle remains pristine and free from damage is to apply a coat of automotive seam sealer on the car.
However, in many cases, people do not want to use actual seam sealers on their vehicles. Whether because of the price or for other reasons.
In this case, there are plenty of alternatives to seam sealers available that can be used instead. They are in most cases cheaper than the actual product. Let’s check out some of them.
Top Automotive Seam Sealer Substitutes
Here is a list of those alternatives:
- Acrylic Caulk
- Silicone Caulk
- Home Gutter Sealant
- Sealing Gum
- Liquid Nails Adhesive
Let’s start with the discussion of those alternatives in detail:
- Acrylic Caulk
Acrylic caulk or acrylic sealant is a water-based, synthetic material that is made from acrylic resins. This material is mainly used for caulking, joint filling, and filling gaps and cracks.
A layer of acrylic sealant, when applied in the right way protects the surface from dust, dirt, and grime.
Acrylic caulk is very versatile since it is resistant to moisture and both heat and cold.
As such, it is appropriate for application on all kinds of materials such as wood, concrete, plastic, brick, glass, and metal.
All these factors make acrylic caulk a perfectly good substitute for automotive seam sealers.
However, a downside is that since acrylic caulk is water-based, its application could promote rust growth instead.
So, keep that in mind before you apply acrylic caulk to your vehicle. Usually, acrylic caulk comes in 310-milliliter cartridges.
- Silicone Caulk
Silicone caulk, in many ways, is very similar to the previously discussed acrylic caulk. The main difference is, unlike acrylic caulk, which is a water-based material, silicone caulk is not water-based, instead, it is made of a chemical solvent.
As this material is not water-based, there is no risk of rust when applying this to your car. Rather, silicone caulk is primarily used to keep moisture and air from getting in or out. This greatly helps prevent rust growth.
Silicone caulk is also very elastic and can withstand both cold and heat. It can take up to 24 hours for a silicone caulk layer to properly set in. But after it is done, the results are worth the wait.
- Home Gutter Sealant
Gutter sealant is made of liquid rubber and is very easy to apply.
It practically adheres to any surface and bonds quickly.
It also offers long-lasting water and leak proofing.
This sealant is mostly used to repair any cracks in home gutters.
However, it also has waterproof and mold-resistant properties. Along with all that, after the gutter sealant hardens, it becomes extremely strong and will not crack.
- Sealing Gum
Sealing gum is another material that can be an adequate substitute in case you are not willing to go for actual automotive seam sealers.
This gum is an elastomeric substance that is also extremely sticky. As a sealant, it possesses incredible cohesion and elongation properties.
It is very dense and extremely flexible. It is also non-hardening which means that it will not solidify when applied to your car and hence there is no risk of it cracking.
It adheres very well to all sorts of surfaces such as wooden surfaces, metallic surfaces, and plastic. Along with all that, sealing gum also has excellent resistive properties to many external factors.
This substance is completely weather-resistant, waterproof, oilproof, and fire-retardant. It also does not conduct electricity and is completely non-toxic.
- Liquid Nails Adhesive
Liquid Nails is a company that produces and sells adhesives for a variety of different tasks. For general purposes, their Heavy Duty or Fuze It adhesives are the most ideal.
Both of these are very strong adhesives that bond to anything other than polyethylene and polypropylene. It can even be used under any weather conditions without any issues.
Whether the surface it is being applied to is hot or cold, wet or dry, Liquid Nails adhesives bond strongly and quickly.
Liquid Nails adhesives have an extremely short bonding time. Right after being applied, it grabs to the surface within 15 seconds. And once it has bonded, it can withstand all kinds of harsh weather conditions.
All these properties make Liquid Nails adhesives an ideal and less pricey alternative to automotive seam sealers.
Are Automotive Seam Sealers Actually Worth It?
Before we get into the main subject matter of the article and discuss the alternatives, let us first take a look at and get to know the automotive seam sealers.
Every vehicle is prone to a damage of many different kinds. Corrosion and rust can easily affect and damage your car if you do not take proper care of it.
One of the ways to ward off damage, rust, and corrosion from your vehicle is to apply automotive seam sealers.
Seam sealing is a process where ambient, warm-applied sealants are put on the body of the vehicle.
When applied properly, the seam sealing application protects the exterior of the body from all kinds of corrosion and rust.
It does so by keeping things that cause corrosion and rust such as dirt, dust, and water off the car.
Now that you have come to know about automotive seam sealers, if you are still not too keen on using them, you may want to try out one of the alternatives instead.
While these alternatives are not specifically meant to be used as an automotive seam sealer, they still do an adequate job of replicating its characteristics when applied properly.
Some of these alternatives you may even find lying around your house. If not, they can easily be bought from different hardware stores.
After going through the article so far, you should now have a pretty good idea about all the possible alternatives to automotive seam sealers.
With all that in mind, are our automotive seam sealers actually worth investing in rather than just using one of the alternatives mentioned in the article? To know that, I have talked about those automotive seam sealers in detail.
When it comes to their actual purpose, automotive seam sealants perform better in general than the alternatives since their very purpose is to be applied to vehicles.
The issue arises with the pricing. Most of the time, a single tube of sealant does not suffice. So, most people need to invest in multiple tubes of sealants to get the job done.
Rather than doing that, one could just use one of the alternatives to get similar results but at much cheaper costs.
Also Read: Comparing 3M 4200 With 5200 Marine Adhesive Sealant.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
There are many automotive seam sealers available. Some of the best are Eastwood Brushable Seam Sealer and 3M Dynatron Auto Seam Sealer among others.
Silicone sealants are perfectly alright to use as an alternative to automotive seam sealers.
Seam sealing provides a moisture barrier on the body of your car which prevents rust stains and damage.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), epoxies, and expanding sealers are typically used in seam sealing applications.
Conclusion
It is vital that you take proper care of the body of your vehicle. An improperly cared-for car exterior will quickly start to exhibit signs of rust and corrosion damage.
To prevent all that, it is important that you utilize automotive seam sealers whenever necessary.
However, in case you do not want to invest in the actual product, any of the automotive seam sealer alternatives mentioned in this article can be used instead.
