Roof/Drip Rail Repair

I have some rust along the edges of my cab roof. It's mostly just pinholes along the body side of the drip rail, but there are a couple of bad spots up front. The pinholes are easy enough to weld up, but the bad spots go right to the edge of the curved part of the roof.

I'm not holding my breath that I'm going to find a rust free donor. What's going to be the easiest way to repair this? Cut square stock in half and try to blend the weld at the transition? Make a real patch panel complete with curve? And if so, how far should I plan on cutting into the roof?

Also, this is a pickup cab, so it has a spot welded metal headliner. Is it worth it to pull those panels out so I can get at the underside of the roof or is that just making more work for myself?

 

Hey,

The tough thing about rust repairs is that it's the rust that ya can't
see that's the real job. Cutting out rust in the drip rail and top panel
areas until you hit good sound metal in all directions is your best bet.
I'd fab shaped patches as close to the shape of the roof and drip rail
panels as possible, and weld them in ,as necessary. Try to get behind
all of those repair areas and kill any rust found with conversion primer
, weld thru primer and than over coat with undersealer. Be sure that
you leave no bare metal behind those repairs, if you do, that's where
rust will begin again with a vengance.

S****ey Devils C.C.

 

whats the truck?

 

I sandblasted my rusty drip rails to remove all rust I then put masking tape on the outside and using a mix of fibergl*** resin and fine cut fibergl*** "painted" the inside. A small file was used to shape the rain gutter. This was done in about 1979 and since then the car sat outside at least 6 of those years, it has only one very small easy to fix blister. I know that some guys here will not like my repair method but it worked for me.

 

It's a '64 C10.

Sounds like I should probably pull the headliner if for no other reason than to spray the underside of the roof.

 

If you can't find another roof for a '64 Chevy truck, your eyes are closed.

Now, that's not saying a complete replacement is the best option, but it would be pretty easy to do.

If you decide to repair what you have, I would say a thorough sandblasting, and probably pulling the inner panel down, would be necessary. You don't want to miss any rust that will come back in a couple years, do you?

 

After you cut out what you have to, use a really good rust inhibitor as far as you can reach in anny direction of the cuts. Good luck, Rags

 

I had similar issues w/ the 53 wagon I'm now working on....as far as preventative from the backside....put some por-15 in a cheapy weed sprayer....pump it up....and spray thouroghly. Worked well!