Sandy the Tan FJ60 (5 Viewers)

[CenTXFJ60]

Yeah I could have reused the old skin and patched it. My "rust free" donor roof that I bought earlier in 2022 from someone turned out to not be rust free. Looked fine outside but, once I got the skin off, the inside was rusty whereas my factory roof skin looked rusty outside and was good inside. The donor skin is still in better shape than the factory one so I still plan to use it. It would be infinitely easier to patch it off the truck if someone didn't have a donor roof. Plus with the drip rails needing to be refilled on most of these trucks, given relatively low amount of effort it takes to remove the skin, there's no reason not to take it off for any type of roof rust repair. It allows you to check out the inner structure and repair it correctly.



Thanks! I went in 2021 with my brother @Hokierig in his FJ62 and that trip was what convinced me to get a 60 and make the trip back out for SAS with the new truck. I was planning to go last year which is why I got the truck turned around and baselined relatively quickly but life happened so it didn't work out which is unfortunately the same story this year most likely. Maybe 2024 I'll make it out. I really want to take the truck out there since that was the original goal.

Sounds great. Look forward to watching your progress and activities with Sandy. Really cool stuff.

 

[Hokie LX]

Both skins off and the a-pillar gutters are also off. There was a little surface rust poking out from behind the a pillar gutter so I zipped it off to check. Sure enough, just some mild surface rust underneath. Luckily nothing that can't be easily remedied. Metal work should start this weekend.

While the donor roof was advertised as rust free and looked great on the outside, you can see it was in fact, not rust free on the inside...but we will prevail!

Pardon the messy garage.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Both skins off and the a-pillar gutters are also off. There was a little surface rust poking out from behind the a pillar gutter so I zipped it off to check. Sure enough, just some mild surface rust underneath. Luckily nothing that can't be easily remedied. Metal work should start this weekend.

While the donor roof was advertised as rust free and looked great on the outside, you can see it was in fact, not rust free on the inside...but we will prevail!

Pardon the messy garage.

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This is so awesome to see. I think 50% of the cruisers I see around here have that rust under the A-pillar gutter. After digging in as deep as you have do you think it’s possible to remove the A-pillar gutter without removing the roof skin? Appreciate your thoughts. Jimmy

 

[bj70bc]

nice work! its good to see these trucks get the attention they deserve
my roof needs this treatment as well.
if you get a second...what do the 255 85's Yoko's measure off the ground with vehicle weight on them?

 

[Hokie LX]

This is so awesome to see. I think 50% of the cruisers I see around here have that rust under the A-pillar gutter. After digging in as deep as you have do you think it’s possible to remove the A-pillar gutter without removing the roof skin? Appreciate your thoughts. Jimmy

Yes, they can come off without pulling the roof skin. There’s a small gap where it transitions down the a pillar that I cut to to separate it from the gutter along the top. Then it’s just spot welds along the inside.

If the donor roof is any indication, even trucks that look rust free from the outside likely have some serious rust on the inside.

nice work! its good to see these trucks get the attention they deserve
my roof needs this treatment as well.
if you get a second...what do the 255 85's Yoko's measure off the ground with vehicle weight on them?

Thanks. They measure ~32.5” on street pressures.

 

[open country]

Nice work - sorry if I missed it but what's your welding setup?

 

[Hokie LX]

Nice work - sorry if I missed it but what's your welding setup?

It’s a little finicky if it gets too many beers in its system but it’ll get the job done. It’s name is @GLTHFJ60

He’s got a few welders. Not sure which one he’ll recommend for this job.

 

[Hokie LX]

For anyone curious I will be taking a lot of pictures of the process and will be detailing it here and likely in a new thread so it’s easily searchable for anyone else wanting to tackle the job.

 

[onemanarmy]

The A pillar channel removal, rust remediation, and re-attachment is new to me! Looking forward to many more pics!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

We'll be using 0.023 er70s-6 in a mig, Ironman 210.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Both skins off and the a-pillar gutters are also off. There was a little surface rust poking out from behind the a pillar gutter so I zipped it off to check. Sure enough, just some mild surface rust underneath. Luckily nothing that can't be easily remedied. Metal work should start this weekend.

While the donor roof was advertised as rust free and looked great on the outside, you can see it was in fact, not rust free on the inside...but we will prevail!

Pardon the messy garage.

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Ahhh...just realized you did some minor quarter repair. Curious what you used to push that panel back out. I typically use a small basketball, football or some other type inflatable item depending on where the dent is.

 

[Hokie LX]

Ahhh...just realized you did some minor quarter repair. Curious what you used to push that panel back out. I typically use a small basketball, football or some other type inflatable item depending on where the dent is.

Good eye! I used a couple lengths of calibrated 2x4 and 2x2 and a hammer to pop it back out. It's 90% as good as it was before. I didn't take much time to make it perfect as I have a sneaking suspicion it'll happen again.

 

[Hokie LX]

Today was the start of addressing the roof rust. I had taken the cap off previously but we carted the old skin, donor roof, and truck over to the healing room with @GLTHFJ60. Huge shoutout to Johnny for helping make this happen and offering to host the repairs in his garage!

Today was mainly comprised of cutting out the rot and making some patch panels. We started on the area above the driver rear door. We followed the same steps on each area today.

1. Mark out area to be removed.
2. Drill out spot welds on the gutter and cut the gutter out
3. Wire wheel the area and cut out the rotten metal back to clean metal
4. Clean up the edges of the cut metal and prime with weld through primer.
5. Cut good metal from the donor roof and shape/finish to fit

Driver rear door.

Spot welds drilled and started cutting gutter

Gutter removed

Wire wheeled

Sectioned

Primed

 

[Hokie LX]

Next was the two areas towards the back corner on the driver side

Gutter removed

Cut out the rot

Cut the donor roof out

Patch panel comparison

 

[Hokie LX]

Rear corner primed and the big patch panel laid over top showing how well it fits

Next was the passenger side. There was only one area on the passenger side needing attention. We'd thought the passenger side would've been worse due to the rust going down further above the rear door but it ended up being an easier patch.

The area in question...looks bad!

Gutter removed

Rust cut out

 

[Hokie LX]

Wirewheeled

Cleaned up and primed

Patch panel cut

 

[Hokie LX]

Next steps will be to weld in the patch panels and weld the gutter sections back on as well as the a-pillar gutters which I took off previously. Then we'll move on to repairing a few areas of the new skin that need attention. I'll keep the thread updated with our progress. Once we get completely finished, I'll post a separate thread detailing the process to make it easier for others wanting to tackle this job to find and reference.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Of note, the primer is weld through primer. Good stuff.

This is new territory for me, excited to be a part of it!

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Of note, the primer is weld through primer. Good stuff.

This is new territory for me, excited to be a part of it!

Johnny…I am as excited as you guys are. This is absolutely awesome work and something I’ve been thinking about tackling for some time. It’s wonderful to watch y’all do this and be able to witness each step. Thank you both for documenting everything. Jimmy

 

[cruisermatt]

This has to be the most thorough roof repair I’ve seen out there