Just as another data point, I went out and looked and luckily there is no visible crack or visible paint stress in that area on my rig.
And, just as an echo of what RT and ID were mentioning, and as an extension of all my metal work/ body work/ restoration work, I have to say that this totally looks like a manufacturing stress. RT is totally correct that the radius right there is way too tight, in fact i'm surprised araco stamped that part that way. ID is also totally correct that anything ( roof stress, body flex, frame flex and possibly even the stress of opening and closing the doors repeatedly ) that exerts any force on that area is going to give the hidden crack the chance to reveal itself.
I'll take a crack (ha ha) at answering the question about preventing the problem or repairing the problem. This is how I would do it taking into account the metal work and body work experience i have had.
First from the inside of the cracked area I would take a dremel tool and the tiniest steepest cone stone shaped dremel bit I could get and just rough up the reverse of the crack taking care not to take any actual metal off; just rough up the primer or whatever coating is on the inside of the panel and give the area "some tooth" for the repair to stick to, do this as evenly as possible, only grind off an area about 1/2 wide above and below the fold in the metal, and about two inches long. If the actual inside radius of that part is too tight to get the cone shaped stone in there, then take a piece of 60 grit sandpaper about 1inch by 1inch, fold it in half and lightly rub that fold right into the inside radius of the metal, do this as well as the roughing up described above. Take the time to make this as precise as possible; if you just reach your arm up and start scratching and scuffing stuff up, its just gonna make the repair area less likely to take the repair and its just gonna make everything else in there get scuffed and scratched needlessly.
Next, clean the area with a solvent like Eastwood PRE so that there are no antirust coatings or other coatings that would interfere with the welding.
Then, get something Eastwood makes called AntiHeat and spread a lemon sized oval about 1/2 thick all around the other side (paint side) of the crack and the moulding. This stuff is really remarkable; it has the ability to absorb a ton of heat and I have used it to protect even rubber trim which was only one inch or so from the weld site. It starts as a clay like putty and ends as a hard clay like pottery that you can pop off, resaturate with water, and then reuse. Its not too expensive but it is enough to not get just for this repair, with that in mind, it might be fun to get a tub and have one mudder after the other mail it on to someone else ready and wanting to make this repair.
Next spray a spot (lemon size and shape again) of "weld-thru" primer on the inside of the panel. This will help the weld stick to the metal and will also help the inside of the crack itself and the inside of the weld itself not to rust in the future.
Then, drill a super small hole (1/16th or so) about 1/4 to 1/2 past the point where you can see the crack. Drill this hole right in the center of that tight radius. This is not a scientific way to reveal the end of the crack, as RT pointed out, the crack can and will extend past the part that you can see, but, the drilling is not so much to stop the spread of the crack but to allow a sort of perforation weld or spot weld just past the crack. Do one spot weld at one hole, then wait a while ( 60 seconds or so just to be extra careful) and spot weld the other hole, then wait a while and start stitching the weld taking extra care to avoid overheating anything around that area. This is one time not to make that perfect welded seam that goes from one spot to the next without stopping. The best way to describe it is to make a tig weld looking weld with a mig welder while taking roughly a minute or so to make each one of those symmetric ripples. It is time consuming but by doing this and by using the antiheat, I have actually made repairs similar to this without harming the paint on the other side at all.
When you are done welding, spray another small spot of the weld-thru primer over the area to prevent the future rusting problems. If you want you can also spray some paint or some primer to match the rest of the inside of the panel although this tends toward the anal end of the spectrum (as if the rest of this process so far did not!)
All the above assumes that this area is somewhat accessible from the inside of the panel. If it is not, basically the same proceedure is called for except that you do it from the outside, the paint side. Rough up a pretty precise area around the crack ( I usually measure and tape pretty precisely where I want to rough up and then use that same area plus 1/8 in all directions to re-tape for priming and painting etc), put the anti heat on everywhere except the actual crack, pre-prime, pre-drill, spot weld, stitch weld, grind softly and smoothly while allowing 'more meat' in that area, then touch up with primer and paint to match the surrounding area. Its a lot of work but it will fix the problem permanently. Hope this helps and sorry for the long write up, did not want to leave too many questions floating around.
And, just as an echo of what RT and ID were mentioning, and as an extension of all my metal work/ body work/ restoration work, I have to say that this totally looks like a manufacturing stress. RT is totally correct that the radius right there is way too tight, in fact i'm surprised araco stamped that part that way. ID is also totally correct that anything ( roof stress, body flex, frame flex and possibly even the stress of opening and closing the doors repeatedly ) that exerts any force on that area is going to give the hidden crack the chance to reveal itself.
I'll take a crack (ha ha) at answering the question about preventing the problem or repairing the problem. This is how I would do it taking into account the metal work and body work experience i have had.
First from the inside of the cracked area I would take a dremel tool and the tiniest steepest cone stone shaped dremel bit I could get and just rough up the reverse of the crack taking care not to take any actual metal off; just rough up the primer or whatever coating is on the inside of the panel and give the area "some tooth" for the repair to stick to, do this as evenly as possible, only grind off an area about 1/2 wide above and below the fold in the metal, and about two inches long. If the actual inside radius of that part is too tight to get the cone shaped stone in there, then take a piece of 60 grit sandpaper about 1inch by 1inch, fold it in half and lightly rub that fold right into the inside radius of the metal, do this as well as the roughing up described above. Take the time to make this as precise as possible; if you just reach your arm up and start scratching and scuffing stuff up, its just gonna make the repair area less likely to take the repair and its just gonna make everything else in there get scuffed and scratched needlessly.
Next, clean the area with a solvent like Eastwood PRE so that there are no antirust coatings or other coatings that would interfere with the welding.
Then, get something Eastwood makes called AntiHeat and spread a lemon sized oval about 1/2 thick all around the other side (paint side) of the crack and the moulding. This stuff is really remarkable; it has the ability to absorb a ton of heat and I have used it to protect even rubber trim which was only one inch or so from the weld site. It starts as a clay like putty and ends as a hard clay like pottery that you can pop off, resaturate with water, and then reuse. Its not too expensive but it is enough to not get just for this repair, with that in mind, it might be fun to get a tub and have one mudder after the other mail it on to someone else ready and wanting to make this repair.
Next spray a spot (lemon size and shape again) of "weld-thru" primer on the inside of the panel. This will help the weld stick to the metal and will also help the inside of the crack itself and the inside of the weld itself not to rust in the future.
Then, drill a super small hole (1/16th or so) about 1/4 to 1/2 past the point where you can see the crack. Drill this hole right in the center of that tight radius. This is not a scientific way to reveal the end of the crack, as RT pointed out, the crack can and will extend past the part that you can see, but, the drilling is not so much to stop the spread of the crack but to allow a sort of perforation weld or spot weld just past the crack. Do one spot weld at one hole, then wait a while ( 60 seconds or so just to be extra careful) and spot weld the other hole, then wait a while and start stitching the weld taking extra care to avoid overheating anything around that area. This is one time not to make that perfect welded seam that goes from one spot to the next without stopping. The best way to describe it is to make a tig weld looking weld with a mig welder while taking roughly a minute or so to make each one of those symmetric ripples. It is time consuming but by doing this and by using the antiheat, I have actually made repairs similar to this without harming the paint on the other side at all.
When you are done welding, spray another small spot of the weld-thru primer over the area to prevent the future rusting problems. If you want you can also spray some paint or some primer to match the rest of the inside of the panel although this tends toward the anal end of the spectrum (as if the rest of this process so far did not!)
All the above assumes that this area is somewhat accessible from the inside of the panel. If it is not, basically the same proceedure is called for except that you do it from the outside, the paint side. Rough up a pretty precise area around the crack ( I usually measure and tape pretty precisely where I want to rough up and then use that same area plus 1/8 in all directions to re-tape for priming and painting etc), put the anti heat on everywhere except the actual crack, pre-prime, pre-drill, spot weld, stitch weld, grind softly and smoothly while allowing 'more meat' in that area, then touch up with primer and paint to match the surrounding area. Its a lot of work but it will fix the problem permanently. Hope this helps and sorry for the long write up, did not want to leave too many questions floating around.
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