60 series roof repair (3 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

prwillard2

SILVER Star
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Threads
55
Messages
1,809
Location
Oceanside, CA
Found an FJ60 locally for a great price. No rust except for the roof. How expensive is this repair? Is it even worth it?

0B9763B2-25C2-4AA7-BA50-1CF91C81E3E8.jpeg


A04696DA-0F96-4821-A4FC-7D7CB702B85C.jpeg


D05EE55E-465B-44C1-8753-3DE419FA6FB6.jpeg


ED81BE56-438B-4433-99A3-D9C2DB914961.jpeg
 
You have a couple options to choose from. I would say the rust/holes in the roof go far beyond what the eye can see especially if it has been left out in the rain. I would find a good body shop close to you and have them look at it to see if they could give you a rough estimate on what it would cost to repair the rust. Another option would be finding a donor FJ60 that has a rust free roof and have someone cut your existing roof off and replace it with another one that is free of rust. Your third option and most cost effective is treat the areas of rust yourself and just patch it up and drive it as is. What you really need to ask yourself is how much are you willing to spend and proceed forward after that.
 
I fixed mine myself with very little welding experience.

9DAB6B93-FF91-4097-84B6-FD6377481675.jpeg


5E2B869D-F813-4A03-8B31-B78E91BA6672.jpeg


F1AF8D05-5F82-4C83-8AA8-2885A1345944.jpeg


B839D700-AE5A-4B69-BEC4-115D8E83D412.jpeg


BCAC8042-141E-4575-91A8-3802282E8EE6.jpeg
 
A little 153 rattle can action and it’s good as new.

If I cut the roof off of my truck, there’s no way I would have ever finished it with the amount of little things you have to do.

3240C11F-1F63-4616-B19E-B7BCE731C400.jpeg
 
I vote for fixing it yerself. We can't see the extent of damage to the outer gutters though with the chrome strips on. They did this repair in Nepal.

 
I vote for fixing it yerself. We can't see the extent of damage to the outer gutters though with the chrome strips on. They did this repair in Nepal.


That’s amazing work and very resourceful.
 
You’ll notice the guys in Nepal removed the headliner and insulation. That’s an absolutely critical step to avoid the high risk of burning your cruiser to the ground. That insulation is very flammable.
@HemiAlex Alex…you were very lucky ma man :).
 
You’ll notice the guys in Nepal removed the headliner and insulation. That’s an absolutely critical step to avoid the high risk of burning your cruiser to the ground. That insulation is very flammable.
@HemiAlex Alex…you were very lucky ma man :).
I have to say. I have no idea how the headliner didn’t catch fire.
 
For info, here is a pic of a cross section cut of a 60 series roof. This cut is through the rearmost side window area.

Rust here usually isn't from failure of the external gutter seam-sealer (though that won't help), but from moisture settling onto the unsealed/untreated metal inside the roof section where there is a sandwich of at least three pieces of metal. Sweat, moisture from your breath and condensation drip down into the area marked in red (humans are filthy creatures......).

Orange points to the gutter section which is a separate piece of steel inserted and spot welded in place.

If you are squirting in a rustproofing agent, make sure you get it into the right place. I've seen a few where the gunk was only applied over the lip shown in blue. From memory that's only there to hold the headliner tensioning wires.

And when I had my 60 repainted, I had the shop cut a piece out of the roof gutter at each rearmost corner to help with drainage when parked slightly nose-up. It was covered by the chrome strip and probably completely unnecessary given what I've written above........:)


60 X sect (2).jpeg


60 X sect.jpeg
 
I hope everything worked out ok and you were able to contain it and minimize the damage.
Okay, so I don’t remember if I have posted about this - mainly due to embarrassment , anger, and a feeling of stupidity on my behalf… so…
I had a few minor rust bubbles appear on the gutter line of my hj61. I decided to cut the rust out and weld new metal in (as I did with my Hj60 a couple of years earlier without incident). All went well with cutting the rusty bits out, and fabricating new parts… I was careful in tacking the new bits in and covered the windows with leather aprons and cardboard. Every tack weld I would stop and check for smoke, trying to keep everything cool… one tack I did I noticed the smoke didn’t go away as quick as the rest… because I had the leather and cardboard protecting the paint it took a bit of time to get it out of the way to see what was happening - by that time (maybe 20 seconds!) there was molten, flaming roof liner dropping on the rear seats and rear cargo area!!! Luckily I had a hose next to the car (as I do whenever I weld / grind) and pretty much hosed the whole of the interior of the car out!!!!
I very nearly lost the 60, my wife’s 200, our boat and possibly our house!!
Luckily insurance covered it and replaced the roof liner!!
Be safe!!
Drew
 
For info, here is a pic of a cross section cut of a 60 series roof. This cut is through the rearmost side window area.

Rust here usually isn't from failure of the external gutter seam-sealer (though that won't help), but from moisture settling onto the unsealed/untreated metal inside the roof section where there is a sandwich of at least three pieces of metal. Sweat, moisture from your breath and condensation drip down into the area marked in red (humans are filthy creatures......).

Orange points to the gutter section which is a separate piece of steel inserted and spot welded in place.

If you are squirting in a rustproofing agent, make sure you get it into the right place. I've seen a few where the gunk was only applied over the lip shown in blue. From memory that's only there to hold the headliner tensioning wires.

And when I had my 60 repainted, I had the shop cut a piece out of the roof gutter at each rearmost corner to help with drainage when parked slightly nose-up. It was covered by the chrome strip and probably completely unnecessary given what I've written above........:)


View attachment 3007519

View attachment 3007521

Ahaa….there’s the pics of the roof cross section!! Been looking for those forever and couldn’t find.
Thanks for posting these.
 
For info, here is a pic of a cross section cut of a 60 series roof. This cut is through the rearmost side window area.

Rust here usually isn't from failure of the external gutter seam-sealer (though that won't help), but from moisture settling onto the unsealed/untreated metal inside the roof section where there is a sandwich of at least three pieces of metal. Sweat, moisture from your breath and condensation drip down into the area marked in red (humans are filthy creatures......).

Orange points to the gutter section which is a separate piece of steel inserted and spot welded in place.

If you are squirting in a rustproofing agent, make sure you get it into the right place. I've seen a few where the gunk was only applied over the lip shown in blue. From memory that's only there to hold the headliner tensioning wires.

And when I had my 60 repainted, I had the shop cut a piece out of the roof gutter at each rearmost corner to help with drainage when parked slightly nose-up. It was covered by the chrome strip and probably completely unnecessary given what I've written above........:)


View attachment 3007519

View attachment 3007521
what a huge design flaw and why we see soooo many 60s with roof drip edge rot. Nice detective work!
 
what a huge design flaw and why we see soooo many 60s with roof drip edge rot. Nice detective work!
I should apologise for not being able to attribute the source of that photo. Got sent to me many years ago.

I used to work with aircraft and old Alfa Romeos, so corrosion is a bit of an interest...... ;)
 
That is a huge job. What you see is most likely the tip of the iceberg - the real rust issue is between the gutter rail and the box section on top of the side members, and fixing the roof skin in patches from outside is tnot going to help that. Have a careful look all round under the gutter / drip rail and if you see rust coming up alongside the seam sealer... you are in for a lot of work.

If you have that degree of rust, in my opinion there is only one way to do it properly (my picture). I had two small holes in the roof skin along the left-hand gutter, but also two rot holes under the gutter. above the rear left quarter window.

WhatsApp Image 2022-10-16 at 08.53.29.jpg


EO
 
I think stripping the roof skin off and getting all the areas that were untreated from the factory and patching all the sheetmetal that is already too far gone is the way to go too. Even on trucks not yet showing external rust damage, it seems this type of work will be needed at some point due to the shortcuts taken during the initial manufacturing process. Great to see more people doing this level of work and pioneering the path for those of us who will need to do it in the future.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom