Roof seam reseal

[oilwell1415]

Sadly this is a cautionary tale. My roof seams have needed resealed for a long time and I finally scheduled time this week to get it done. My plan was to grind out as much of each side as I could with the windshield and back window still in place and reseal those areas first to make sure the roof didn't move when I took them out. I went out this morning and got started with the driver's side drip rail area. I started griding and found rust. I knew there was some surface rust, but I found it under the old sealer and in a few places along the drip rails. It was rusted through in a few places. Worse than pinholes, but not any huge areas. Still going to be a royal pain to fix correctly. I've still got some work to do, but will probalby be giving it the POR 15 treatment as well just to make sure. The moral of the story: if you think you need to do this, do it sooner instead of later.

In other news, wire wheels on an angle grinder or drill work really well to clean out the old sealer. I did burn up my angle grinder in about 10 minutes and had to go get another one. Hopefully between the new (and better; the old one was a cheaper one) grinder and several wire wheels I'll be able to finish. I actually think a cordless drill works better than the angle grinder and battery life does a pretty good job of protecting the drill from getting killed.

The good news is that i can get to the entire front seam with the windshield in place, so that simplifies the logistics of the operation somewhat.

 

[Burntoutaccountant]

I recommend Eastwood platinum over por15 any day of the week. This is the underside of my bronco Painted it and the frame in platinum It isn’t I’ve resistant so you need to coat it in their chassis black paint too

 

[slow94]

I second the Eastwood stuff. That silver one I used is ridiculous. Whatever you do wear gloves and do not get it on something you don't want it on as it won't come off. If it gets on your skin it will take over a week to come off as well... I used that stuff on parts of my frame then put a black top coat over the silver.

 

[Burntoutaccountant]

Also wear a respirator. That shit is toxic.

 

[oilwell1415]

Ain't nobody got time for Eastwood. I ended up not using the POR 15. I found some stuff by Rustoleum that was single step and seems to have worked well. Time will tell.

I didn't get as much of this done as I had hoped, but hopefully enough to last a while. Once I took the windshield trim off I could see that I was able to to the seam all the way to the windshield on the front without removing the windshield, so I did from the front corner to within an inch of the back window rubber on both sides. The 3M panel adhesive was easy to use and easy to sand. I just hit it with some Rustoleum semi gloss black rattle can when I was done. I had hope to get the entire roof painted, but ran out of time. Had a few unexpected holiday trips I had to make that cost me a day or two and the weather wasn't as cooperative as it was forecast to be. I've got a long weekend off scheduled for next month and I'll hopefully be able to get the rest finished. Overall, not a terrible job to do. I highly recommend doing it before you need to to avoid having to deal with the rust.

 

[RPM289]

I have found the rattle can of Rust oleum rust converter works great. I sprayed it on a rusty frame and just brushed loose rust off with a rag and sprayed it. after a few days I hit it with 4 in wire wheel and it actually converted the rust to a black tough coating! Very impressed with it.

 

[oilwell1415]

I had to use the brush on, but it seemed great as well. Hit the driver's side twice since it was worse, then wire wheel, cleaned with tar and grease remover and painted. After 2 days it hasn't bubbled up, so we're off to a good start.