'66 Panel / Suburban Roof Repair?

[Fursphere]

Hello

I'm in the process of restoring / upgrading my '66 Panel truck. What I've done so far is covert the frame from 2x4 to 4x4, and I'm currently getting the new fuel tank (30 gallon '87 'burb tank) mounted, then I'll start working on the new engine / tranny / transfer mounts. (454 TBI / Turbo 400 / Divorced NP205)

The body is currently off the frame.

Looking at the body - where the roof meets the side walls, there is an obvious "rubber" seal there that has rotted away. And on the inside of the body, there are bolted camps every 8 inches or so. Does this roof come off?

How does one replace that rubber seal? I can see daylight inside the truck coming through the roof/sidewall "seal" area. There is light surface rust in the area too on the inside, as well as above the roof supports that obviously needs to be get cleaned up.

Any ideas on how to solve this one?

thanks!

-Andy

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum Andy

The outer roof does come off, but it does require drilling out many, many spot welds. The area of the 'rubber' seal that you describe, sounds to me like the drip rail that goes around the entire roofline. That drip rail should be cleaned very well and coated with either a good epoxy primer, or something like POR-15. Then the drip rail needs to be sealed with a good flowable/self leveling seam sealer. Those items can be found at better auto parts suppliers, and body and paint suppliers. You say you can see daylight from the inside.....hopefully you don't have a serious rust issue in that area. Getting as much of the rust cleaned and covered with POR-15 will at least slow it down if you can't get to replacing rusted areas right now.

Post up some pics of your panel, it sounds very interesting.

[Fursphere]

Pre-Tear down.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/4927/21jan02309.jpg

The location I'm discussing is right below the drip rail - and directly above the long whip antenna in the pic. I don't have any pictures of the exact area currently, but maybe I can get some this week. (The truck is not locally stored unfortunately)

[65sublime]

Fursphere,
The section from about the sidedoor opening to almost the rear door/gate opening the roof is bolted to the side panels. At the door openings there are some welded sections. It looks like a very odd way to put a vehicle together I know. The sheetmetal doesn't really fit well either. My suggestion is to consider some automotive panel repair glue or some reinforced filler to seal the area. I'd try to sandblast the joint as clean as possible before hand.

[Fursphere]

Wow, that is strange. Thanks for the info. I guess removing the roof is out of the question, unless I find some major cancer.

Sandblasting that area is going to be a pain in the butt.

thanks again for the info!