Sandy the Tan FJ60 (4 Viewers)

[Hokie LX]

Welding in these long patches into the thin metal meant the gutter edge was deformed from the metal shrinking from the welding. You can see it here. These will get addressed when the roof is put back on next.

Then we worked on sanding down the patches inside and out and Johnny bodyworked the sides of the roof back to shape. His air file is the perfect tool for finishing off the sanding after grinding the majority of the weld bead down.

 

[Hokie LX]

We primed the inside of the hood after grinding down the welds with weld through primer and sprayed some paint on the areas where the cross braces had contacted the paint on the skin. The new skin will get completely covered in sound deadening before the new headliner goes in.

We also primed the gutter and inner structure with weld through primer to prep it after wire wheeling the gutters once more to make sure they were clean.

 

[Hokie LX]

The roof skin is back on!!

I applied new butyl to the tops of the cross braces and then we laid the roof back on! It was an exciting moment and we celebrated with a beer or 4 and ended the day there. Next step will be welding the new skin on and prepping for paint.

You can see how the gutter where it was preveiously shrunken from the welding has been shaped back to normal.

 

[Elbert]

New ones on the left. They are already way brighter than the stock ones! Once I get the cooling system sorted, I'll get the truck out and aim them.

yeah, those lights are good, I went the same direction after trying others....great choice. The angle between high and low beam is perfect, unlike many others. Can't beat a "tan" 60.

 

[bj70bc]

congrats...

 

[open country]

Awesome - bookmarking a bunch in this thread for pics of the inner roof structure. If still planning on making the dedicated roof repair thread, that will be a huge resource for the forum!

 

[cruisermatt]

super nice job boys. just painting the patched areas and windshield surround?

 

[Hokie LX]

super nice job boys. just painting the patched areas and windshield surround?

Yeah just respraying roof, gutters, a pillars and cowl. I may respray the whole truck later but a lot more bodywork would need to be done before I’d consider a full respray worth it. Wouldn’t consider a full respray unless I stopped wheeling it. I also am fond of the current patina on the truck

 

[Hokie LX]

Awesome - bookmarking a bunch in this thread for pics of the inner roof structure. If still planning on making the dedicated roof repair thread, that will be a huge resource for the forum!

Still planning on making one. Will likely wait until the truck is ready for paint and all metal/body work is done.

 

[Hokie LX]

Oh man did @GLTHFJ60 and I hit a milestone today!

We have officially finished all of the roof rust repair work, welding, and metal work! We got the entire roof welded back on, a-pillar gutters back on, and masked off the truck to strip the roof paint.

Here was the process we used to weld the roof back on with the intent of preventing any warpage of the skin due to welding. The roof skin got a little wonky with our on, off, on, off and bodywork so we made sure it was square and ready to go when we put it back on.

1. Clamp front edge and press the outer corners into the upper corners of the window frame to ensure the contour matches.
2. Weld the entire front edge after tacking the front corners.
3. Weld every 3rd hole down each side doing about 1/2 of each side at a time.
4. Once the entire roof was tacked in at every 3rd hole, the rest of the roof was welded in hole by hole.

Here is the front edge welded and every 3rd hole. The intern who cut off the roof caused some extra work for the welding team on the roof skin so there's some pretty large welds to fix *someone's (read: my) mistakes.

Many hours of using the mini air sander and the front edge was cleaned up and ready to go!

Entire roof skin is welded!!

 

[Hokie LX]

Then we stripped the paint off the outermost part of the roof skin to make a clean attachment area for the masking tape. We masked off the truck except the roof skin in preparation for chemically stripping the existing paint.

I also spent more hours with the mini air belt sander grinding down the welds on the undersides of the gutters. Still need to spend more time with some other sanding tools to get above the pillars, quarter windows and back window.

Paint stripped in preparation of masking.

 

[Hokie LX]

Masked and paint stripper applied! It goes on like a jelly so it sticks pretty well and the plastic sheet was probably overkill but that never hurt anyone. We then covered the strip with stretch wrap to prevent it from evaporating too quickly.

 

[garfieldthecat]

Masked and paint stripper applied! It goes on like a jelly so it sticks pretty well and the plastic sheet was probably overkill but that never hurt anyone. We then covered the strip with stretch wrap to prevent it from evaporating too quickly.

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Excellent work! Do you have a color match already or will you be primering and sending it to a painter?

 

[Hokie LX]

Excellent work! Do you have a color match already or will you be primering and sending it to a painter?

I have color matched paint already so we’ll be stripping the roof and a-pillars and cowl and priming and painting those areas.

The roof and pillars were previously resprayed by the PO anyways so it won’t look much different once we paint it than it did before and I get to keep the patina on the rest of the truck that I am fond of.

 

[4runner2FJ60]

Are you going with epoxy primer? Repainting roof is in the very near future for me to.

 

[Hokie LX]

Are you going with epoxy primer? Repainting roof is in the very near future for me to.

Yes I’m using epoxy primer

 

[HemiAlex]

Fantastic work.

 

[cruisermatt]

excellente'

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Are you going with epoxy primer? Repainting roof is in the very near future for me to.

Order is:
Epoxy primer right on bare metal
Final hammer work, skim coat of bondo (1/32" thick or less) wherever needed
Another coat of Epoxy primer
Single stage color, 2-3 coats depending on our patience

Edit: Nason color matched single stage, and Eastwood direct to metal Epoxy primer.

 

[4runner2FJ60]

@GLTHFJ60 Thanks for the info..... Do you apply the seam sealer RAIN CHANNEL sealer after primer before paint, or between primer coats?