Hi all,
Before I start, I want to give another huge shout out to @GLTHFJ60 who was instrumental in making this project happen and I cannot thank him enough for his guidance and help along the way!
For those following my build thread, I have already detailed it there but I wanted to make a separate thread that is more searchable to help guide others in this process to fix their roof rust. I'll skip the 100 pictures in my build thread and instead focus this thread on the general process and use some pics to help along the way.
I'll spare you the background but basically, like most 60s/62s, my truck had roof rust. I knew the outer skin was bad but had no idea how bad the inner section was. The PO had the rust addressed some 10+ years ago but the rust was never neutralized and just sanded and bondo'd so, naturally, the rust came back.
The plan was to remove the roof skin, repair any and all rust we found, and then weld her back up good or better than new. I could not find any guide/details/pictures/etc. of anyone else having gone about repairing roof rust by removing the roof skin like we planned to do so we were figuring it out as we went along. Not to say we were the first to do it, but I think I'm the first to post details about it. In my opinion, this is the correct way to go about addressing roof rust as you are able to see all areas that could rust on the outer and inner structures of the roof to ensure all rust is neutralized/removed. While I have seen entire roof swaps done by cutting the pillars, I learned through this process that all of these roofs have rust. It's common knowledge that these trucks rust from the inside out so while the outside may look cherry, I'm willing to bet there's rust inside. This method allows you to address all of the roof rust, inside and out.
Now let's dive into it. I'll post some pictures along the way to help but all of the pictures from the job are in my build thread for those wondering. Starting on page 13 you’ll find what my roof rust looked like from the outside after poking at the rust bubbles in the garage one day. Build Thread
I recommend pulling the interior and headliner and taping off the vents on the dash before you get started so they don't fill with dust and metal shaving. I didn’t pull my interior out of laziness but with the amount of metal dust and general crap that got everywhere during this process, I wish I had.
First task is to remove the headliner and windshield. Once done, begin removing all gutter sealant from the entire perimeter gutters and a-pillar gutters and wire wheel clean so you can clearly see each spot weld in the gutter. I ended up using a mix of flathead screwdrivers and small chisels and a hammer to get the old sealant out of the gutter channels. Followed by wire wheeling will let you will see the spot welds in the channel. These are circled below.
Next up is to start drilling out each and every spot weld on the perimeter of the gutter and upper windshield frame. I used Rotabroach bits for this which worked well. Use a slow drill speed and lube. (Rotabroach Bits) On my truck I noticed that the spot welds on the upper windshield frame were larger than those in the gutter. Buy multiple size bits to handle different size spot welds. I used the 5/16” bit for the gutters and 7/16” for the windshield.
Once all of the spot welds are drilled out you need to cut the a-pillar gutter to separate it from the roof skin and grind out the brazing that attaches the roof skin to the top of the a-pillar. You could leave the a-pillar gutter attached but it would likely get bent up anyways so just cut it. I used a Dremel with a small cutoff wheel to do this. The approximate cut line for the roof brazing is marked below. The brazing is roughly in this area. You will see the lap once you remove the windshield. Simply cut outwards from this along the a-pillar. The roof is lapped over the pillar so do not cut straight into the pillar like I did. Cut horizontally into it to remove the braze. When you grind the paint off of that area, the braze will be clearly visible. I just don’t have a picture of it.
Once the brazing is cut and the a-pillar gutter is separated, you are ready to pull the skin off. The top edge of the gutter on my truck was pinched in slightly so I had to pull the gutter back with some pliers so that the skin could pop out. Once removed, you’ll be left with this.
Now I had purchased a “rust free” donor roof that looked fantastic on the outside but once I popped the skin off of that roof, the inner structure and inside of the roof skin were also very rusty. However, my existing inner structure was in much better shape than expected so we kept it and decided to cut metal from the donor structure to fix the existing one. The roof skin on the donor roof however was in better shape than mine as the back edge of mine over the rear window was about 70% gone. We cut patches from the stock roof skin to patch the donor skin.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND GETTING A DONOR ROOF THAT IS IN DECENT SHAPE FOR THIS PROJECT!! Being able to cut and patch areas of your roof with matching sections from another roof makes this process much faster than having to make replacement patches from flat sheet.
Once the skin is removed, go ahead and wire wheel the underside of the a-pillar gutter to find the spot welds and drill the out to remove the gutter. Be careful not to punch through the pillar metal with your bit! It will be much harder to repair than punching through the gutter on the roof. I was lucky in that my truck did not have any serious rust below the gutter but it is a common place for these trucks to rust through. Pulling this gutter lets you repair any rust that is there.
Before I start, I want to give another huge shout out to @GLTHFJ60 who was instrumental in making this project happen and I cannot thank him enough for his guidance and help along the way!
For those following my build thread, I have already detailed it there but I wanted to make a separate thread that is more searchable to help guide others in this process to fix their roof rust. I'll skip the 100 pictures in my build thread and instead focus this thread on the general process and use some pics to help along the way.
I'll spare you the background but basically, like most 60s/62s, my truck had roof rust. I knew the outer skin was bad but had no idea how bad the inner section was. The PO had the rust addressed some 10+ years ago but the rust was never neutralized and just sanded and bondo'd so, naturally, the rust came back.
The plan was to remove the roof skin, repair any and all rust we found, and then weld her back up good or better than new. I could not find any guide/details/pictures/etc. of anyone else having gone about repairing roof rust by removing the roof skin like we planned to do so we were figuring it out as we went along. Not to say we were the first to do it, but I think I'm the first to post details about it. In my opinion, this is the correct way to go about addressing roof rust as you are able to see all areas that could rust on the outer and inner structures of the roof to ensure all rust is neutralized/removed. While I have seen entire roof swaps done by cutting the pillars, I learned through this process that all of these roofs have rust. It's common knowledge that these trucks rust from the inside out so while the outside may look cherry, I'm willing to bet there's rust inside. This method allows you to address all of the roof rust, inside and out.
Now let's dive into it. I'll post some pictures along the way to help but all of the pictures from the job are in my build thread for those wondering. Starting on page 13 you’ll find what my roof rust looked like from the outside after poking at the rust bubbles in the garage one day. Build Thread
I recommend pulling the interior and headliner and taping off the vents on the dash before you get started so they don't fill with dust and metal shaving. I didn’t pull my interior out of laziness but with the amount of metal dust and general crap that got everywhere during this process, I wish I had.
First task is to remove the headliner and windshield. Once done, begin removing all gutter sealant from the entire perimeter gutters and a-pillar gutters and wire wheel clean so you can clearly see each spot weld in the gutter. I ended up using a mix of flathead screwdrivers and small chisels and a hammer to get the old sealant out of the gutter channels. Followed by wire wheeling will let you will see the spot welds in the channel. These are circled below.
Next up is to start drilling out each and every spot weld on the perimeter of the gutter and upper windshield frame. I used Rotabroach bits for this which worked well. Use a slow drill speed and lube. (Rotabroach Bits) On my truck I noticed that the spot welds on the upper windshield frame were larger than those in the gutter. Buy multiple size bits to handle different size spot welds. I used the 5/16” bit for the gutters and 7/16” for the windshield.
Once all of the spot welds are drilled out you need to cut the a-pillar gutter to separate it from the roof skin and grind out the brazing that attaches the roof skin to the top of the a-pillar. You could leave the a-pillar gutter attached but it would likely get bent up anyways so just cut it. I used a Dremel with a small cutoff wheel to do this. The approximate cut line for the roof brazing is marked below. The brazing is roughly in this area. You will see the lap once you remove the windshield. Simply cut outwards from this along the a-pillar. The roof is lapped over the pillar so do not cut straight into the pillar like I did. Cut horizontally into it to remove the braze. When you grind the paint off of that area, the braze will be clearly visible. I just don’t have a picture of it.
Once the brazing is cut and the a-pillar gutter is separated, you are ready to pull the skin off. The top edge of the gutter on my truck was pinched in slightly so I had to pull the gutter back with some pliers so that the skin could pop out. Once removed, you’ll be left with this.
Now I had purchased a “rust free” donor roof that looked fantastic on the outside but once I popped the skin off of that roof, the inner structure and inside of the roof skin were also very rusty. However, my existing inner structure was in much better shape than expected so we kept it and decided to cut metal from the donor structure to fix the existing one. The roof skin on the donor roof however was in better shape than mine as the back edge of mine over the rear window was about 70% gone. We cut patches from the stock roof skin to patch the donor skin.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND GETTING A DONOR ROOF THAT IS IN DECENT SHAPE FOR THIS PROJECT!! Being able to cut and patch areas of your roof with matching sections from another roof makes this process much faster than having to make replacement patches from flat sheet.
Once the skin is removed, go ahead and wire wheel the underside of the a-pillar gutter to find the spot welds and drill the out to remove the gutter. Be careful not to punch through the pillar metal with your bit! It will be much harder to repair than punching through the gutter on the roof. I was lucky in that my truck did not have any serious rust below the gutter but it is a common place for these trucks to rust through. Pulling this gutter lets you repair any rust that is there.
Last edited:
