Rain Gutter and Top Restoration (2 Viewers)

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You know, I didn't put any seam sealer between the fiberglass and visor... and now I'm realizing that would have been a good idea. That seam is tucked up pretty high above the windshield and under the fiberglass cap, but I imagine some water could sneak through when driving into the rain at high speeds. I don't recall there being any sealant in that spot from the factory, assuming mine was original... but it does seem like a good idea.

I riveted the gutter on before I installed the visor, so I had to kind of slide the visor under the gutter to install it... I had a brief moment of panic thinking I had done it out of order, but it was pretty easy to get it in there. But it would have been tricky to manipulate without making a mess if I had seam sealer on the visor. So if you do use a sealant, I'd rivet the visor in first, and then do the gutter.

The seam sealer will probably booger up your clecos (btw I definitely recommend getting clecos if you can). but it's probably worth sacrificing a few of them.
 
I’d throw some sealer along that seam before you put the cap back on. It may help a tiny bit with wind noise and it’ll keep water out of that crease when you’re washing the truck. It’s hard to get at the corners, but not impossible. From my experience, white SEM 1K sealer ages in a way that turns close to Cygnus white. It starts out somewhat off white and no one looks up there anyway.
 
yeah, kind of kicking myself on that now. I'll have to take a look at it next time I'm out at the shop- to my memory, it's kind of tucked back a bit, so it might be tough to get in there now. but definitely worth a try.
 
@Pierps this is all very helpful. Thanks!! I was actually in the process of making that rivet tool with vice grips. If it's a pain to actually lock down all those rivets then I will use an air hammer. I was able to find metric rivets to replace the ones around the edge. Those are m3x10mm. My visor was already drilled a little wider by the PO so I picked up some m4x10mm. However, the m4 is just a little too thick. I will figure out the right size there.

What color paint did you go with? I have heard a lot of people say Cygnus is too tan.

P.S. I will definitely go with that epoxy filler. I have been looking for a used tool to keep cost down.
 
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.

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Get a flap disc and spend $150 at Harbor freight for a flux core welder. Thats an easy fix. Plus its more fun to do it yourself instead of hire everything out. Thats my 40 ethos though, doesn't have to be yours and that's okay
 
An air hammer is an air hammer, the rivets don't care which brand of tool is pummeling them.
I guess my question is how do I adjust the settings so I dont completely smash the rivets and fiberglass
 
I guess my question is how do I adjust the settings so I dont completely smash the rivets and fiberglass
Get yourself an inline pressure regulator and put matching air chucks to your current air tools on the inlet/outlet sides then when you want regulated pressure you can pop it inline and adjust down to a reasonable pace for mashing aluminum.(the air chucks aren't necessary, you could permanently plumb it in- it's just nice to be able to quickly take the regulator in/out of the system)(IMO)
 
Get yourself an inline pressure regulator and put matching air chucks to your current air tools on the inlet/outlet sides then when you want regulated pressure you can pop it inline and adjust down to a reasonable pace for mashing aluminum.(the air chucks aren't necessary, you could permanently plumb it in- it's just nice to be able to quickly take the regulator in/out of the system)(IMO)
I should clarify, I have lines ran along the walls of my shop with chucks so all my hoses have a male and female quick connect on them. If you're running a compressor with hose hard mounted you'll have to add some connectors to the equation or just hard mount it inline at the compressor/hose connection
 
@jvincig01 I just got the $44 Husky air hammer from Home Depot. As for avoiding damage with the air hammer, just turn the pressure way down to start, and dial it up as you get a feel for it. There's no downside to starting with pressure that is too low- it just won't be that effective. I think I used like 40 psi, while the recommended PSI is 90. Each rivet took maybe a 1 second burst. It's really easy. The nice thing about the air hammer is that you can also rivet the visor on with it. The squeezers don't have the necessary reach.

I'll get back to you on the paint code. I just picked it out from the sample chips at the paint supplier. The examples of Cygnus White that I've seen weren't my favorite- it's almost beige with a very minor green hue... It doesn't go super well with the Cadet Blue I painted my rig. I tried to pick a white that had a bit of gray to it (I didn't want pure white).
 
Oddly enough, just wrapped up editing these two vids - bit of work to get the cap all happy, but it's definitely nice to split it and get everything tidy. (Also some info in my build thread)

I did put sealer between the rail and cap, and also used the self-leveling sealer over the rivets in the gutter. I used a home-brew vice-grip riveter without much issue as well, so your mileage may vary there. I shipped that down the road to @Slapshot , not sure how they fared, though.

Long vids, but might help someone on their way or give a different view of things:

 
Oddly enough, just wrapped up editing these two vids - bit of work to get the cap all happy, but it's definitely nice to split it and get everything tidy. (Also some info in my build thread)

I did put sealer between the rail and cap, and also used the self-leveling sealer over the rivets in the gutter. I used a home-brew vice-grip riveter without much issue as well, so your mileage may vary there. I shipped that down the road to @Slapshot , not sure how they fared, though.

Long vids, but might help someone on their way or give a different view of things:



Dude.... this is AWESOME. I am going to spend the next two hours binge-watching your videos. Thank you for sharing!!
 
For reasons unclear to me, I can’t get my visor to line up with the old holes drilled in the hardtop.

I’m considering filling the existing holes and redrilling.

Should I use a short strand filler to do this or get a fiberglass repair kit with resin?
 
Those are what I used for the gutter on mine, they do help for sure.

I didn't pull my visor though, but if it was on there before, it should go back. 😄
Yeah it was on there but at a bad angle. I’m not sure it was a sin of the prior owner or what. I can make it better but it would involve drilling new holes for the rivets.
 
Made a little progress yesterday. Since I have the sides off, I put some POR 15 on. They had some rust spots that weren’t terrible but needed to be treated with something. I did the 3 step POR process so I think I did it right.
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Got my gutter back from the welder. He said it didn't make sense to cut out all the small holes and do a bunch of tiny patches. So he filled them all instead. Does it look as pretty as a clean patch? Nope. But this will do.

After I finish shaping the dented edges and such, I am going to hit it with a 2k epoxy primer. Then fill some of the pits with body filler, followed by more 2 k primer. I want the bottom to be as flush as possible to the weatherstripping to create a near-perfect seal.

Question... this thing has been media blasted and then worked on with bare hands. Yeah, I know. Don't do that. But what's done is done. Any recommendations on how to remove some of the very light rust before I primer? I thought about hitting it with a roloc bristle disk. Just not sure which grit.

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I'd just hit those spots with 80 grit sand paper by hand. That kind of surface rust is easy to remove.

Also, I'd recommend doing the body filler directly on the bare steel. The epoxy primer usually has a 3 day recoat window. If you aren't able to paint within 72 hours, you have to scuff sand tiny spot before you can put any paint on top. On a part like that gutter, it'll be a bear to get into the nooks and crannies.

So unless you live in a really humid area with big temperature swings (aka prone to flash rust), I'd try to hold off on epoxy until you're ready to paint within a few days.

I wish I could get all the time back scuff sanding epoxy my truck... Total nightmare of a process.
 

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