Drilling a hole in my roof

you can`t go to dairy barn anymore.....

 

They won't inspect it, but often the vehicles come back for other reasons, such as radio programming or swaps, power issues, etc. At this time we do inspections of their cabling to head off future problems.

It is not a scientific study, it is just, there is a TON of unprimered, totally bare metal inside your cab. If you ever look under your dash, you will see piles of it. None of it ever rusts, or at least very rarely.

If you do it properly and keep the elements out, it should not rust without the presence of an electrolyte (like non pure water). If you mess it up and it rusts, well then thats your fault, not the fact that you did not primer the bare interior metal.

I've seen the outdoor NMO connector corrode like crazy after years in the elements etc, but I've yet to see any real body rusting on the inside on a proper install.

 

I have had a matrix and now my taco and had multiple nmo mounts in each and never had an issue. The matrix was 3 days old before I drilled 2 antennas for CB and HAM stuff. Those were in for 8 years. Never any leaking. The taco was a week old drilled 2 for HAM and a cell repeater. Also have a lip mount on the front driver fender. I have done all mounting myself with a standard 3/4" hole saw. Just take your time

 

Ta daaa.

 

Fair enough, that sounds legit enough. I still have to disagree with the TON of bare metal. I'm not sure where you're seeing this if you could be more specific. If you're talking about brackets and stuff that's another story. If you look at any sheet metal you will see that the back side facing the cab is not bare metal, rather it has a primer type or ecoat to prevent rust. If you ever take a roof skin off or even take out the headliner you can see its not a silver look like bare metal. It usually has a brownish gray color which is the ecoat.

 

Look under your dash. It is not primed. The whole frame of it is bare metal.

 

Lol I know the dash 'frame' is bare metal. Its more a type of one huge bracket, most vehicles will be like this. But no vehicle has an outside piece of sheet metal where the backside is not primed.

EDIT: we should probably stop hijacking this thread, not my intentions at all. My opinion as I see and deal with rust on a daily basis is that you should seal up any bare metal every chance you get, wether you think it will matter or not. Let's just agree to disagree

 

didnt get around to installing my antenna this last weekend. do to having to get surgery on my right ring finger. hoping in the next few days i can get it installed

 

I don't think that's a major concern. People have been installing CB antennas on vehicles for well over 50-years, even longer with antennas for other radio services, without a significant number of reports related to dissimilar metals (outside saltwater boats). Rust is the major concern, usually caused by poor mount designs (clamp-on mounts which punch through the paint, etc) or insufficient seals (through-metal mounts, etc). Since the efficiency of a seal is usually unknown, I do agree it's a good idea to cover (paint, caulking, etc) any bare metal under the mount.

 

I'll agree to that

No radio or car audio shop in the world that I've ever seen primes metal after drilling into it, so I'll stick with that for now.

That being said priming wont hurt, and as long as your antenna connector that you're putting in the roof cuts through on the back side into the metal, making your car body "antenna ground" you will not have issues.

 

.
... NMO = stands for "what" ... thanks for the definition ...
.

 

New MOtorola

 

x2

 

Perhaps a good idea if a significant number also had that same license. As it is, most in this country with radios (friends, neighbors, associates, 4x4 owners, etc) have CB radios, so that's clearly the obvious choice for communications with those.

 

Ya in the USA, CB is still pretty prevalent. In canada its is pretty much extinct now a days. Everyone just uses VHF on public channels or just pirate a channel no one is using.

That or of course getting their license and using amateur channels.

 

what are you using for a cell repeater and how do you like it?

 

This is the one I am using

http://m.wilsonelectronics.com/store/display/2063/38/dual-band-800-1900-mhz-mobile-wireless-801201

You might have to take the m off the link. I like it. I have the antenna in the armrest. They say it only has a 10" radius for the booster antenna. But my phone is on the dash and I can notice a little boost. Def better when I move the phone closer to the armrest. Comes in handy.

 

I use the same one. It vastly increases your cell range in some cases.

 

???


What size of drill bit does it take? Or hole saw?

 

Fingers feeling pretty good so I'm gonna install it tomorrow night after work