A new use for expanding foam

[bikinkawboy]

On the older Dodge trucks with the roof made of a steel inner and outer shell, I never did like the reverberating tinny sound then in rain and the sometimes flexible nature of the outer roof. I had a can of that expanding insulating foam and I stuck a length of windshield washer hose over the end of the dispensing tube. I took baling wire and wrapped it around a phillips screwdriver in a spiral fashion and slipped the wire over the hose to stiffen it up some. Otherwise the hose was far too limber to go where I wanted it to.

I squirted the stuff through the holes where the visors attach and the dome light. It worked fairly well and certainly deadened much of the ringing sound when tapping on the roof. I suggest wearing gloves because that foam is really nasty to get off your hands. With the long hose, after you stop pressing the button, you need to wait for a bit because the foam is still coming out the end of the hose. Otherwise you'll pull it out and then smear the foam all over everything. When I sanded and painted the exterior roof, on the front side I found a few rusted through pinholes. I sealed them before painting, but I made sure that I got the foam squirted in that area. I figure it should stiffen and help support the thinning metal in that area.

 

[JGC403]

My grandfather had done that on a 1974 Power Wagon. Not because of sound deadening though the cab lights kept leaking and he couldn't get it to stop no matter what he did. So he ended up using the expanding foam.

 

[DodgeAddict]

Unless you sprayed that inner structure with Ospho or some other rust converting solution you've just accelerated the rusting in your roof Ma Mopar didn't prime or paint the insides of these parts

The spray foam will draw moisture

 

[JGC403]

In my case the truck is long gone. The frame rotted away before the cab did.