Has anyone completely cut off the roof gutter?

[toyotaspeed90]

As the title says... and I'm curious.

It seems that the design is quite poor, frankly. Looking up automotive roof gutter rust and repair - in the custom world it's common to just cut them off and allow the water to run down the side.

Curious if anyone has done that. I am in the middle of cutting out some bad sections and have about 18" without the gutter. It makes the roof look tall, but not bad.....

Seems like it wouldn't be terrible to cut it all off and weld the cap to the body....

 

[brownbear]

I've never seen it on here myself.

I'm having a hard time envisioning it too.

The way the seams join and roll out, I am not so sure it's an easy thing. But for sure the head line would need to come out, then see what happened.

Every repair I have see on here here is them recreating the flange of the gutter.

 

[toyotaspeed90]

To give you an idea....

The headliner could stay so long as you do it in sections. The lines to do it are there.

As a reminder.... the body, roof cap, and gutter are 3 separate entities that are basically spot welded then seam sealed together. .

 

[3_puppies]

is the gutter bad or is it right above the gutter?

the rust is mostly coming from the inside out, no place for the moisture to escape once up into the roof cavity.

the design is not quite poor. look at most rigs up north even into Canada and the roofs and upper half of the bodies are in very good shape.
look at rigs in California and other places and the lower halves of the body are nice and the roofs are rough
this is just my observations.
what I'm thinking is even removing the gutter, the moisture is still inside the roof cavity.

 

[toyotaspeed90]

Sections of the roof above the gutter are bad, some of the sections parallel to the ground (in the gutter) are bad.

I attempted to weld shut some of the bad sections but even my Lincoln 140 at the lowest voltage burned right through the gutter.

It's a poor design because the gutter being a separate piece entirely allows moisture into multiple layers of metal instead of just 1 seam.

There's a reason it was redesigned on the 80 and 100 series...

 

[brownbear]

yah my roof is minty, the body sucks..

How far in does the body go under the roof cap?

That looks quite neat, and you can be the first! Go for it.

 

[brownbear]

60's in general have poor designed seams and mating between surfaces. They are bare metal, lack drainage and are to top it off are a metal inherent to rust ( I think it was recycled with rust metal in the 70's)

 

[brownbear]

I attempted to weld shut some of the bad sections but even my Lincoln 140 at the lowest voltage burned right through the gutter.

I've done a ton of body metal welding on my 60.

I have a lincoln version of a 170 (Mig pak 15, 240 volt).

I have found the A setting, and 2-3 wire speed, and only just a spot type of trigger pull can be done. No beads.

I have also decided never to do edge to edge type of patches. I over lap weld the edges with spots, grind and smooth with filler.

 

[toyotaspeed90]

I've done a ton of body metal welding on my 60.

I have a lincoln version of a 170 (Mig pak 15, 240 volt).

I have found the A setting, and 2-3 wire speed, and only just a spot type of trigger pull can be done. No beads.

I have also decided never to do edge to edge type of patches. I over lap weld the edges with spots, grind and smooth with filler.

I wasnt doing a bead, just a light tap of the trigger and touching the welder to the gutter burned through. I was able to successfully clean up (with the welder) some spots above the B pillar.

I did a LOT of work with this on a 40 series.

 

[FJACS]

If you’re determined to weld that repair area with the headliner in place at least roll the truck outside so you don’t burn your garage down. The headliner padding is quite flammable - a couple of sparks and you’re lit.

 

[brownbear]

I wasnt doing a bead, just a light tap of the trigger and touching the welder to the gutter burned through.

experienced that when welding rusty metal, or thinned out on the back side.

One method up there on the roof, could be remove the rusty metal like you did. Wire it down. Use a rust converter. Paint it with an auto primer (not por-15) Then make a patch that over laps an inch each side of the hole you are covering.

Use 3m panel bonding adhesive (8115) . Let cure and skim fill the edges.

Welding is also a source of rust, as you cannot clean and prime the back side of the weld. So I would not have a problem using the expensive glue.