In trying to combat the rust on my '96 80 series rain gutters I ground into to some body filler. It appears that the roof, a-pillars and rain gutters are all seperate pieces spot welded together every 4 inches or so. The small gaps between the roof and gutters were filled with body filler.
Was this done by Toyota at the factory? It appears to be original as there is no paint blend marks, the primer matches other parts of the body, all body panels have original Toyota VIN # stickers on them.
Any way, I ground out all the bad stuff. Coated it with rust inhibitor/neutralizer, re-ground down everything to bare metal and primered.
My question is, will using a small amount of filler to even the gutters out and smooth the transition from a-pillar to roof panel result in leaks and further damage when I install a gutter mount roof rack?
Also, has anyone else encountered this. It appears that filler was used under the rear hatch where the roof mounts because there are faint rust colored cracks in the vicinity.
Was this done by Toyota at the factory? It appears to be original as there is no paint blend marks, the primer matches other parts of the body, all body panels have original Toyota VIN # stickers on them.
Any way, I ground out all the bad stuff. Coated it with rust inhibitor/neutralizer, re-ground down everything to bare metal and primered.
My question is, will using a small amount of filler to even the gutters out and smooth the transition from a-pillar to roof panel result in leaks and further damage when I install a gutter mount roof rack?
Also, has anyone else encountered this. It appears that filler was used under the rear hatch where the roof mounts because there are faint rust colored cracks in the vicinity.