My roof is rotted just above the windshield on the passenger side in the rain gutter.... What a dumb design, huh ?

When it rains, it comes into the truck.


Anyone know if there is a special way to repair this, or should I just bring it to a body shop ?

Anyone do this on their own, with success ? Cut off that rain gutter ?


Thanks...


T.

 

new roof panels are no longer available, when my truck got fixed,
they spent a day or so repairing the cab roof. turned out OK

 

i currently have mine all torn apart. im goin to weld it back together over spring break. if you have a facebook you can see pictures of what im doing. honestly tho, if you dont have good welding skills i wouldn't mess with it. leave it to the body shop. now i almost wish i got another cab lol. im replacing the roof panels, rocker and floor pan lol. but eventually even "rust free" roofs would rot out because dodge didnt put any primer right where they rot out. good luck with whatever you choose

 

What you can do is sandblast the crap out of it, seal the metal with paint, add water proof fiberglass hair bondo, and re apply the seam sealer in the gutter. I did one of my old trucks back in 2002 and its still holding good for the new owner. I made sure to clean all the rust down to bare metal. I patched my red 92 this way as well, but its temp on that one just to get by until the cab install.

 

hey-Hey!!!,
On this failure, it seems that either they've already rusted or they won't ever. I found another cab and swapped it on my first 1991. Well worth the effort, as I wasn't anything like sure I'd be able to do an adequate job of repair.
cheers,
Douglas

 

My roof rot was found by the windshield replacement guys, ... they showed me how extensive it was and said they couldn't guarantee it drip-free but they'd try. What they did was put extra black goop across the top, and not a drop has come thru in almost a year. Woo-hoo! I've since got my car windshield done there too (Calgary, in case anyone wants to know, best price in town).

 

hey richie thats a good idea! the problem with my truck is they cut the drip edge off and poorly fashioned a piece of stainless steel strip in front, with about 2" of body filler lol hence i decided to cut it all apart and separate the spot welds lol

 

If it was mine I'd just get some rain gutter seal at Lowes and apply it after thoroughly wire brushing the gutter. Then throw a visor on it if it shows. There are actually 3 pieces of metal spot welded together in the gutter above the windshield, the outer panel. the windshield inner support panel, and the inner panel. This engineering feat creates a nice triple layer rust incubator. The rust you see is usually coming from the inside and working it's way out. You can slow it down but few have ever really stopped it completely. Replacing the cab or doing a roof clip is the only longer lasting fix.

 

Ok,

The rot's pretty bad on just the passenger side. I'll post pix later.

What about cutting the gutter off completely, except above the doors, and fixing the metal ? Weld in some new patches, and fix the body work?

In other words, no more rain gutter....

think that would be a problem?... or is that triple meeting of metal an issue?

T.

 

the gutter was cut off mine, the person did a hack job, i wouldnt recommend it but i saw on here before that someone cut the entire gutter off including above the doors on a ramcharager, looked good but i wouldnt mess with it. def. post some pics up and we may be able to help you better lol

 

Ok,

If I show you mine, will you show me yours ?......


Now don't go getting all "george micheal" on me......hear me !

Just post a pic of your "hack job"


Can't really see much, other than it's basically gone.

 

Before...
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After w/ cab lights added...
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Had a parts truck to transplant roof from, Truck was all rotted out but the roof was perfect! go figure!


I do think some roofs were galvanized or something, like said, they either rust or they don't.


Lee Iacocca was trying to save $.13 cents per truck by not painting the inner layer of the roof. And I think it was his idea to use all the chincy 18ga wire in the headlight circuitry. That saved another $.18 cents per truck. He retired in '92 so we can't blame him after that.

 

And i was told by a few body professionals that the peeling paint syndrome was caused by the assembly line stalling and the primer had to be "tacky" in order for the base coat to bite in. Trucks that were in primer left overnight or over the weekend had primer that dried too much. A quick scuff w/ 600 paper to break the shine would have solved the problem.

 

Thanks.

Not bad looking.... Not at all...

I'm liking the idea of welding in some new pieces. One of my future "summer projects"...


At least then, when it's raining, my hands, knees, pants and dashboard......won't be getting rained on any longer

T.

 

white 91.5 is doing the same thing but its rusted bad passenger side an in side the door jam above the door. I'm going to end up have to replace the cab on mine . very poor very cheap . Thanks Dodge. this problem is worse on my 1969 dodge d100.