Reply to "Deck Lid frame - skin gap"

I spoke with Dennis Quella, and his suggestion (I'm paraphrasing a bit) was auto body seam sealer, or ordinary window caulk. It needs good adhesion, some flexibility, some heat resistance, and be paintable.

I think Julian has the right idea with panel bonder adhesive IF the pieces are a close fit; mine are not, and doesn't appear that they ever were. The old stuff I scraped out of there was 1/4 inch thick in places. I tried bringing the skin panel and frame into contact, but that warped the skin seriously. I have the early deck lid skin with no ridge down the middle, so the metal just has no where to shrink or stretch gracefully.

This got me to thinking though - which to do first - caulk or paint? I think I will finish paint first, then caulk. That way if I'm not happy with the results, or it fails due to separation or heat, I may be able to do over without screwing up the paint. If I caulk first then paint, and something goes wrong, I've got two problems to fix.

I'll see if I can do a before and after comparison on the 2200 RPM resonance - my car does that too.

Thanks for the tips, Rod.