Rain Gutter and Top Restoration (1 Viewer)

[jvincig01]

I posted a few pictures of my rain gutter on this thread and it appears most people think I should take it down and redo it completely: What condition is my gutter in? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/what-condition-is-my-gutter-in.1278568/#post-14339479

Ok, I agree, if I am going to put a new headliner in it, then I am going to do it right. I will use this thread to document what I uncover and my plans to make the top look pretty again.

I have 1967 for those that are curious. I have owned it for 10+ years. It has never done a great job keeping water out. Not that I am looking for it to be perfect, but might as well fix what I can.

The top has been carefully removed. When removing the gutter, I did break a few bolts up top, but I can remove those later. Here is what it looks like in my garage:

Fortunately, these hidden bolts came off easily, they were hidden under the weatherstripping. Not the best design from Toyota. The rest of the railing was protected very well over the years and there is very little to no rust along the top. (California rig )

Here are some warts around the metal gutter. I will also flip this over and remove all the rivets this weekend.

 

[jvincig01]

I will likely take the top cap to a boat shop to have all the imperfections taken care of, and then have them paint it. Here are some issues on the top of the fiberglass. The front, where the visor is mounted by a few screws, has some hairline cracks. I am thinking this is easy work for any reputable boat repair shop.

 

[airon23]

Good luck. It's part of the fun of owning these things. I'll be watching.

 

[jvincig01]

Well, I flipped this thing over like a rotisserie chicken to see what the underpart of the gutter looked like. Crap... doesn't look pretty in the back corners. To make matters worse, yours truly has zero welding skills. So I will need to pay to have this patched up.

Question... do I pay to have this metal restored or do I order a gutter from Cool cruisers? Not sure what I can expect to have a welder charge to fix this. Beyond these spots, the metal is very solid.

 

[1969FJ]

You can get it repaired , but, if it were me, I would get new gutter and paint it well.

 

[middlecalf]

Cool cruisers sill needs to be welded together as well, it's in pieces for shipping.

 

[Jetlander]

And that’s why it is always better to just tear the whole thing apart. The red devil hides everywhere.

 

[bhsdriller]

Sacramento.....I say hit it with rust converter, put back together and don't worry about it for the rest of your life

 

[Pierps]

Personally I would have it fixed. Or better yet, take the opportunity to get a little MIG welder and learn- it's not hard at all to learn how to do the welding necessary for sheet metal work! Don't be intimidated. This isn't a structural repair- nobody's life depends on it. And if your welds look crappy, you're going to grind them down anyway.

I think you should repair it because If you hit it with a wire wheel/angle grinder, I think you're going to find that the rust turns to dust and you're going to have holes. That rust is pretty bad.

I would recommend patching the bad spots rather than getting a new gutter. The Cool Cruisers full gutter comes in pieces without any of the rivet holes drilled. So it'll require some careful fit-up work (bolting the pieces down to the hard top sides and door headers, placing the fiberglass top on it to make sure it's all aligned, adjusting, tack welding, and then carefully drilling the many holes for the rivets. Fiddly work. If you take it to a pro, they're going to need the entire cruiser to do this properly, and frankly I wouldn't trust a shop to have the necessary patience. If you can bend the damaged sections back to flat (I'm sure you can), then I'd just patch the rusty sections. It looks like it's just the horse shoe sections that need replacing.

An in-between solution would be to just replace the "horse shoe" section with the cool cruiser panels if those are your only bad spots:

https://www.coolcruisers.com/ragucoch.html

I would first bend the bent sections flat, brace it by tack welding some angle iron across the corners to keep things from moving on you, carefully cut out the corners, and fit/weld in the new horse shoe pieces. Then you just have to drill a few holes for rivets.

One of the things I learned with my resto is that sometimes it's easier to just patch the rusty spots than replacing the panel with aftermarket parts. Aftermarket parts always require a lot of fitment and adjustment because they're never perfect... and you have to spend a lot of time aligning the parts and measuring before welding in the replacement panels. Replacing entire panels for one section of rust can easily become a "throwing the baby out with the bath water" situation. Your rusty original panels fit your rig, so there's an advantage to keeping as much of the original panels as you can.

But seriously- get yourself a MIG welder and watch some youtube tutorials. You'll soon realize that basic MIG welding isn't a dark art and that you were intimidated for no reason. It's really not hard.

 

[jvincig01]

@Pierps Thanks for the awesome reply! I think I am going to follow your advice and learn how to do this on my own. Would a 110 mig welder be ok? Fortunately, there is a great youtube video of this exact same process. I will post pictures along the way! Next step is to remove the broken bolts and take it in to get media blasted. I want a clean surface to begin with.

Josh

 

[Herb]

I would grind off the rust, fill/weld/grind any holes, paint it, and run it. It just doesn't look that bad to me.

 

[OhioFJ]

@Pierps Thanks for the awesome reply! I think I am going to follow your advice and learn how to do this on my own. Would a 110 mig welder be ok? Fortunately, there is a great youtube video of this exact same process. I will post pictures along the way! Next step is to remove the broken bolts and take it in to get media blasted. I want a clean surface to begin with.

Josh

Yes a 110 mig would be fine; it’s fairly thin material.

 

[jvincig01]

Should these be rivets?

 

[airon23]

Should these be rivets?

View attachment 2954980

Yes

 

[Slapshot]

Your drip rail may be salvageable. Mine looked similar when I refurbed it last year. I detached it from the fiberglass top and had it sand blasted and epoxy primed. A lot of that rust/dirt/scale comes off. Either way, you’ll have to separate it from the top. Then you can assess whether you need a new rail or just repair.

 

[Pierps]

A 110v MIG welder is definitely up to the task of sheet metal repair. If you ever see yourself getting into more serious welding (i.e., frame repairs, suspension stuff, building your own bumpers or tire carriers), then you'll want a 220v unit. The best way to avoid wasting money if you're unsure is to buy a used 110v machine. Usually you can sell tools you purchased used for the same price as you paid. If you get really into it, just sell your 110v machine and upgrade.

 

[DangerNoodle]

I gave a pretty good writeup on how I do rain gutters in another thread : CCOT hardtop rain gutter? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/ccot-hardtop-rain-gutter.1273247/

 

[OhioFJ]

I'm in a similar spot as you are. I started to rehab my existing drip rail, but as I battled with rust, deformed sections and broken screws I decided it would be better worth my time to replace it.

I received my ccot drip rail today - it is nicely made and it seems to line up well. I was pleasantly surprised that it had the captured bolts already welded in place. As @DangerNoodle's post above describes, it will require some work to get the sections to fit exactly. I say get a welder (I splurged last year on a lincoln powermig) and have at it.

In contrast to @DangerNoodle's method I think I'm going to tack weld it while installed on the truck. The existing drip rail isn't an accurate flat surface in my situation.

 

[DangerNoodle]

I'm in a similar spot as you are. I started to rehab my existing drip rail, but as I battled with rust, deformed sections and broken screws I decided it would be better worth my time to replace it.

I received my ccot drip rail today - it is nicely made and it seems to line up well. I was pleasantly surprised that it had the captured bolts already welded in place. As @DangerNoodle's post above describes, it will require some work to get the sections to fit exactly. I say get a welder (I splurged last year on a lincoln powermig) and have at it.

In contrast to @DangerNoodle's method I think I'm going to tack weld it while installed on the truck. The existing drip rail isn't an accurate flat surface in my situation.

View attachment 2957127View attachment 2957128

That's definitely the most accurate way to do it, I usually don't have access to the whole vehicle when I do them, usually because they are fully ton apart and back from blasting.

 

[jvincig01]

Made some progress yesterdy. There are still 4 broken bolts in the gutter. Once I remove it completely, I am confident I can get them out the other side as there is something to grab on to.

A couple of questions for the experts based on the pictures below...

1. If I am prepping the surface for a headliner, what grit paper should I use on the fiberglass? Should I use my orbital sander?
2. I am starting to take off the rivets. I used a cold chisel from the metal side (of course) and they sheer off. It's time-consuming, though. Should just use an appropriate disk and grind them off?
3. That red primer...Is it lead? My rig is a '67.
4. All corners have holes drilled through the gutter to let water through (i assume). Seems like water can get through the fiberglass and metal. Should fill those holes?