Finally, I have some money to throw at the hole in my driveway... erm I mean my 93 150 <_<
Anyways, I got me a fiberglas kit. I know I know, fiberglass isn't anywhere near proper for fixing a car. Let's move on from that for now though, shall we?

Ok, the roof drip rail over the passenger seat is completely rusted off. It looks like the rust goes in between the metal sheets. Not good. There are also holes above that in the roof itself, which is what I intended to be patching. The rust goes from just below the top crease in the roof to the windshield.

I know the 1st gen Rams, the top sheet is held onto the cab by that drip rail. So, am I in trouble here, over my head kinda thing? Will i need to have this welded, or can I just trim it up, get the rust out of there, and patch the hole up?

I'll take some pictures and post on request if my description wasn't good enough. I'll scrape the rust away and see how far it goes.

also, tools at my disposal: cutout saw (thing that looks like an oversized dremmel with drill bits), and an angle grinder with grinding and cutoff discs. I don't have a welder. I also don't want to remove the windshield.

 

you could just cut the drip rail off with the grinder. fiberglass should work good to fix any holes

 

I went out and scraped away at it a bit more. I did not know this, but there are three sheet metal layers, I thought there were only two. Anyways, there's a big rust hole in the middle sheet as well.

If I cut the drip rail off, won't that weaken the roof to the point where the top sheet metal may fly off? Or is the fiberglass supposed to be able to hold it on?

And pictures are on the way in a few, I had a request from someone else to see, so might as well post here too.

 

removing the drip rail should not weaken the roof. i think you can even order replacement drip rail if you cared that much. i think they where welded on after the fact to make the trucks look nicer.

 

Ahhh ok, well, I'm having issues finding a cable for my camera... not sure where it went, so no pictures tonight.
I think i'm going to try to cut off the rail across the front of the roof, but leave it over the doors, and try to blend it in nice with the fiberglass. The tricky part about all that... I've never even touched raw fiberglass before in my life LOL.

This is going to be an adventure in the school of learning by doing

one more thing, any ideas on how I can deal with the windsheild rubber with out removing it? I'm wanting to smooth the fiberglass down to below the top edge of that, so it blends nicer. I'm thinking of just pulling it down and letting it roll under and catch until the fiberglass cures. Does that sound reasonable?

Thanks for the help so far! I promise I'll get pictures of the whole process too, even if I post em all afterwards!!

 

I have drip rail issues too. In fact, it's the only place I have rust on the truck. There's a link on the web somewhere where a guy with a 1st gen ram cut his roof off about half way down the pillars and replaced with a rust-free one from a junk yard I think. When I can afford to I'll do that, but for now I have bondo and primer to keep from getting worse.

 

if you are going to bondo and primer it don't forget to seal the primer with some paint or clear coat or else it will start to get worse real quick.

 

figured I'd cut the rest of the drip rail off across the front, polish it up a bit with a brass brush wheel, then prime and paint so it goes in the seams, then go over the bonding surface again to bare metal so I get a good bond for the fiberglass, then prime, paint and clear coat that when it's cured

btw, the pictures... are comming in the next post cause I forgot to upload them to photobucket

 

http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/y...prailrust1.jpg
http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/y...prailrust2.jpg
http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/y...prailrust3.jpg



part of the discoloration is from attempts to stop the rust from getting worse. failed attempts. Next time, I'll try cutting the rust completly out as soon as possible, even if I can't fix it right then, and coat the whole thing with axel grease. I'd rather clean up a bunch of grease then deal with this much rust again

 

When treating rust. Sand as best you can and wipe the surface. Treat the remaining rust with naval jelly. This chemically converts the rust to primer. Sand to bear metal, bondo or fiberglass, sand smooth, and paint.