Vehicle cover or one of those light duty roof structures? Is the paint intact in the gutter? Any cracks in the paint and sealer? If it's solid just keep an eye on it.

 

I would spray Fluid Film that comes in the aerosol cans in the screw holes in the front cab from the inside.
Sun visor and trim holes is what I am talking about.
Try to work around the applicator wand that comes with the can around to coat the inside of the roof area the best you can.
In the heat of Fla. I would reapply it every year.
I do it with all my fist gens to help prevent the rust tat starts from the inside and rots the cabs out over the windshield.

 

Thanks much for your replies big red & oliver. 1) Yes the sealer & paint are uncracked in the gutter. 2) Ok I'll do that, just picked up some fluid film after having trouble finding it. Found it at lowes & did my door & hood hinges. I'm also going to pull the step trims, clean & wax good, & apply it in the screw holes & put a layer all along under the trim pieces, as this is a bad problem in my F-350. My F350 is a rusted mess from the PO's employees dumping sodas in the floor & never pulling the carpets to clean & dry it up, so the Floor is rusting badly at the door steps & also on the cab lights across the front. I always said that had to be a rust issue with those dang cab lights & now that I've had the F-350, I've learned what a nighmare it is. I'm hoping to keep my '89 W250 from getting terminal like my '97 F-350 is. Also, I'm going to replace the window seals as they are shrinking around the windshield & I want to keep that from getting rusted out like my 350 as well, Isn't there supposed to be one seal that's better than the others ? I've heard of some new ones shrinking & getting funky in no time & would like to keep that job from needing repeated for a long, long, time. Thanks again guys for the replies.

 

Welcome to the forum... The old threads on this website are invaluable; absent the help I receive here, my truck would not still be on the road.

Oliver is correct in that rotting out from the inside is a concern. If you have visible issues on the exterior with your gutters, check out this old thread:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...p-rail-296072/

In the thread I referenced a 2-part epoxy Self-Leveling Seam Sealer which appears to no longer be available but I am sure you can find a substitute. The products available now are much better than what Mopar was using back in 1993...

 

Thanks James, that IS what I was referring to ! I've heard of people doing this BEFORE there was any issues, so there wouldn't be issues later. Mine is still perfect, I'd like to keep it that way. This that I was talking about was done mainly on fleet vans, but, same concept on trucks. I'll ask the guys that will be doing my windshield & back slider seals about that. I do most all my own work, but I'm NOT doing that in my yard, by myself. Thanks, for the reply.

 

My story.

Truck bought from west coast. NO RUST.

Brought here.

Seam sealer started cracking. No rust.. YET. In anticipation of future issues, I took to local body shop.

Shop owner said..... " NO PROBLEM ! We'll set you up. You'll never, ever have a problem, once we're done. You'll be good till you sell or junk the truck".

I went home, pulled all the glass, interior trim, and removed all of the seam sealer that was in there from the factory. Gave it to them, and a week later, I had my truck back. Looked beautiful. Put the truck back together, and .....

Well, 8 months later, they apparently lied to me. It bubbled up in the rain gutter, specifically where it was said "it wouldn't".

Took it back, they fixed it under warranty, gave me some BS he had a former employee that screwed up a bunch of jobs that were coming back. He fired him, yada, yada yada... Yeah...more fake news.

I asked if it would be fixed properly, this time. He guaranteed me (verbally) that I'd get it done right this time. ANOTHER LIE !


8 Months later... Bubbling up again. This time, the tune changed. "The truck is defective, it's a poor design, all these truck rot there,"

yeah... You're full of it. Had to pay him to repaint, I think I paid $600. to get it done again. Yeah, I'm a dumb donkey, I know. I wanted it fixed. He said he wouldn't ever touch the truck again, as he can't fix the defective design. BULL OGNA !

Fast forward to last year (4 years after this started), lots of rust exactly in the place they had failed it before. I had sprayed inside the roof area, but it still failed, again.

Went to a different place, and I had the roof sprayed with Colormatching Line-X. Since I had my bed linex done 10 years ago, and there's not one bubble, I should be good.


Moral of the story. If you don't get the right body guy on this truck, and you expose it to salt, it will fail. Hopefully, you have a better, more reputable body guy that won't blame you, when it all fails. If I had done Linex from the start, I wouldn't be dealing with this at all.

 

Is it a difficult job to pull and reinstall the front or rear glass? I would really like to do that some time just to clean up or replace the seals and catch any rust but, I don't know if it's a one-man-job for an amateur or something best left to someone with experience.

Also, I need to redo the headliner in my club-cab and I think it has to come out through the rear window opening.

-Niemand

 

I removed the windshield by myself. I was replacing the seal, so I removed the locking strip, and cut the rubber off of the face of the glass with a standard razor knife. Gently loosening the glass I removed it and laid it on a big blanket I had on the hood.

The headliner came out of the passenger door.

 

The rear glass was easier to remove, as the frame made me not so nervous about removing and breaking anything

 

The rear isn't to bad but the front is hard to do without breaking the glass. Given the cost of the rubber new glass is almost preferable. My windshield has been replaced twice. One about 10 years ago then again a year ago when it had to be removed for painting. About 3/4 done popping it out it broke.

Going back in is relatively easy. Put the rubber in first then slowly wiggle the windshield in and replace the rubber spreader. No need for sealer.

Edwin

 

The glass guy who came out to put my windshield back in said that the original, oem glass is thicker than the replacement new glass. Claimed it was "better"

Don't know. I helped him put it back in with a,brand new seal. That wasn't easy,,by any means. Even with all his special tools, and 30 years of installatiins, he still took forever to do it, and it didn't break it.

His trick for installation, was a special rubber lube on both the glass and locking strip. The lube was key.

The rear window, I did myself

 

The OEM glass is thicker than the replacement stuff.
When I need a windshield replacement, I always find a original Mopar one and have it installed for me. I have 5 of them on my shop shelf.
I find both of them very easy to pull safely, but I don't have good luck replacing the front windshield on my own.
I bring my good used windshields to a shop that works on them all the time and pay them for their time.

 

Your priority should not be the gutter caulking but the cavity in the roof and being sure of the integrity of the seals and keeping water out of the cab. Then redo the seam sealer, esp UNDER the drip rail. Thats what got my 88 and almost got my 92

Water gets in the cab a million ways, but usually the vent near the drivers feet. Also can be the tiny gaps between the windshield gasket and the a pillar, vent windows, rear window seal and cab lights. The water evaporates and gets trapped in the roof cavity and there is NO paint in the roof cavity and then BAM- little bubbles on the leading edge of the outer roof panel. Which also means the inner panel is struggling and the forward roof reinforcement is toast by the time the bubbles show up. Like you said, gotta get fluid film or eastwood internal frame coating in BOTH cavities of the front section of the cab roof.
This thread is mine and shows some roof pics on states of dissasembly, esp the 2 cavities of the cab
1988 W-100 - 5.9 magnum -new front springs - Dodge Ram, Ramcharger, Cummins, Jeep, Durango, Power Wagon, Trailduster, all Mopar Truck & SUV Owners. Dodgeram

And headliner on regular cab or ext cab should come out pass side window like NJTman said. But its a tight fit on ext cab

And rear window is fairly easy on a warm day. Front is a 2 person job with a tub of Gojo for lube job and some experience needed. Not fun.

 

Gojo. Yup. No pumice version is what he used to install the front.



I didn't use any lube on the back window