What to do... is it worth it?

[71fordkid]

Getting ready for body work, I started stripping the drip rail caulking out. I found that on the drivers side above the door, the roof skin is totally detached from the gutter. there are pinholes all the way around the top of the cab. the lower rear outer cab corners are the same way.

Now the big question : is it savable, Is it worth it?

here are some pics.

drivers side above the door.

[charlie bumpside]

thats not all that bad there are a lot of worse ones than that. i dont know if you can find it in your area but por 15 would stop any more damage

[jzjames]

If you want to seal it so water will no longer be getting into the roof area of the cab, it can be done. And a fairly neat job of it too.
It all depends on your standards, and ability to do the prep, and your determination to follow through.
Just like everything else in life I guess.

Ive seen worse gutters than that and if it were mine I would do the work to seal the roof gutter and think about changing the cab somewhere down the line. You can make a fairly long-term repair that will last years on that rot.

Ive repeated this repair more than a few times, but since you own a flareside, I'll do it one more time.

First strip out the entire gutter material and rust completely until youre down to bare, although rusty, metal with some holes and cracks.
(Strip off the paint up to the crease line of the roof. At that point youre pretty clean and you can see the damage.

Next, (since this repair is not about cutting out metal and fabricating metal to like new), mask off a neat line about an inch around the the perimeter of the roof, about an inch up in other words. Masking tape at Walmarts is $.77 a roll, buy a couple rolls. Mask the front of the driprail so that the caulking material will not get onto the face of the driprail and make a mess. Do this prep work.

Then see if you can buy this product at Home Depot or Leowes. If theyre not stocking it, ask if you can order one or two.

Its applied with a simple caulking gun. The caulk is a butyl rubber material which I have found to be as good as the so-called automotive seam sealer. It does not lift out or seperate and hardens semi-pliable, lasts for years.
Load the 'Gutter & Flashing' into a caulking gun and get ready to refill the sealer into your drip rail.

The drip rail is masked off well with masking tape so your really going to push this stuff into your drip rail.

First off you should get a stiff brush and SCRUB a layer of this stuff into your cleaned out gutter. This will give you a good base with no voids.
At this point I would get some fiberglass drywall mesh and cut some narrow strips that you can apply into this first layer of material. That will give you some reinforcement for the sealer. At this point you can just apply the Gutter & Flashing directly into the drip rail. Fill it up to the top of the driprail toward the front and center and give it a little trough down the sides.

You'll find that the material is extremely sticky and will get stringy as it drys. Try to work fairly fast when your dumping it in there. Dont overwork it with your fingers or you'll get yourself into a sticky situation fast. Just get the gutter filled up. Neatness is key. If you can let it dry for 24 hours or so BEFORE you pull off your tape. You can clean the stuff off with laquer thinner. Its very durable stuff

It cures over a long period of time. Ive had it in my driprail for 7 or 8 years, and NO water has gotten through it. To me its just like the material that the factory put in there.

This will get the roof sealed for good. The cab will now be dry.
Alot of the rust happens when the roof gets holes and water starts getting into the sandwiched metal areas. After things have dried out on the inside of the roof, clean out the rust scale, wash that space with wet rags, and when dry, hit it with a 4 oz. can of Por15.

There ya go.

[bbyrnes1]

Following this one in case mine's this bad when I start

[BobbyFord]

You're on the west coast, you could find a rust free replacement cab at the local pick-a-part for cheap. I wouldn't waste my time with that cab. Just my opinion...

[71fordkid]

The thing is, the rust goes too far out of the gutter/seam on the cab to put the caulking on. It is also visible at the top of the door jamb.

I have two possible good cabs lined up hopefully. So we will see where this goes....

[71fordkid]

Well I think I'm going to try and actually salvage this cab. I need to have my truck done before my wedding in august of next year and I won't be able to save the money for a new cab in a timely enough matter to continue making progress. I started work on it tonight.

I'm going to need to cut a roof off another cab in the junkyard. I need a strip from the rain gutter to the "crown" of the roof. I've already filled 3 rust holes on the back of the cab with my welder.

If I get ambitious enough, I may even try and find a way to delete the section of rain gutter over the windshield, and french the gutter into the cab so it will be flush when it hits the front of the cab.

Heres some pictures of tonights progress.







I'll need the strip from the gutter to the yellow "line" i scratched into the top of the truck to repair this rust.








1

[1972hiboy]

Yea. I wish mine was that nice when I tore into it. I had two- three inch gaps between the raingutter and my top roof skin. You'll be fine....

[71fordkid]

Ouch... that must have sucked. the "joy" of this cab, is that its been painted 3 times.... the truck was forrest green, then yellow, now that blue.

the worst part is, the blue is rustoleum spray paint. it clogs up sandpaper like nobodys business. the entire inside of the cab is painted like that too. Also, I already know that the lower outside cab corners are rusted out. and theres also spots right infront of the doors where the floor meets the body that are rusted. oh yeah, and the cowel is rusted out around the drains.

This is not gonna be fun.

[jzjames]

So you MAY be in for a cab swap. Should be worth it. Follow through is a biggie.