I bought a new truck! Rust repair questions

[ZombieWeinerDog]

i got myself a nice 67 shortbed for a good price. needs new rockers. bottom of the pass. door needs replacing and the drip rails are nasty. how can i repair the rails? i want to keep the patina, or strip the whole thing and paint it flat black. i tried to get the worst spots in the pictures.

Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/SvTXE

has a nice 355 that needs to be re-assembled, ac, intermittent wipers, really nice interior too. it was restored in 92. it really needs it again though. this will be my daily spring, summer, fall (no snow) driver.

[67ctener]

Looks like a lot of bubbling in the paint, you may be in for a surprise. If you wanna keep it patina I'd fix the roof and consider a white roof and pillars

[Dingfodgy]

Rust is like an iceberg.....the part you see is only about 1/3 of whats really there! The rails on my 67 looked very similar to yours. Needless to say, they're gone now- I shaved em. Inner roof skin, A pillar, inner, outer rockers, kick panels, cab corners, 1/2 floor pans and door bottoms have also been replaced. I hope im wrong, but me thinks your in for a fair amount of welding!
Is that original paint? If not I'm not sure the "patina" is worth saving if it means the rest of the cab continues to rot.

[ZombieWeinerDog]

Originally Posted by Dingfodgy

Rust is like an iceberg.....the part you see is only about 1/3 of whats really there! The rails on my 67 looked very similar to yours. Needless to say, they're gone now- I shaved em. Inner roof skin, A pillar, inner, outer rockers, kick panels, cab corners, 1/2 floor pans and door bottoms have also been replaced. I hope im wrong, but me thinks your in for a fair amount of welding!
Is that original paint? If not I'm not sure the "patina" is worth saving if it means the rest of the cab continues to rot.

not original paint, truck was restored in 92

[franken]

Not sure why you'd want to save the nasty maroon paint, but yup, these things rust from the inside out.

Thus, what you see is at best 1/3 of the problem. If you see a pinhole, it's way worse. Think of a crater.

[ZombieWeinerDog]

i got the paint off the drip rails today. they were covered in silicone. i mean slathered in it. there are only 2 holes, everything else looks good.

[Molberg]

There should be a layer of seam sealer in your drip rails. Remains flexible to seal where the 3 panels are spotted together. It's usually when this sealer dries and cracks that the water breaches the cab and the damage starts.

[hugger6933]

Silicone is bad on any part of the body, it holds in moisture and even attracts it. That is probably why the drip rails were worse than they should have been. By now I 'm sure your aware you just remove the old and if the damage isn't too great just drill out some plug weld holes for the new rails to install. Also use some sort of weld through primer on those mating surfaces it will cut down the chance of reoccuring rust. Jim

[pbr]

What he said silicone is porous and will not only let moisture get to the metal it will hold it there. When I work in auto glass we would get cars in were the owner had fixed a leak with silicone only to create a huge rust problem.

[hugger6933]

Yes the silicone will hold the water next to the body not allowing it to dry. I once got a FORD truck in that I had turned down and refused to buy and while on vaca my dad had them send it to me cause we were slow, it had had a clip cab put on it before[ that is cut through the windshield post and across the floor]and the gomers that had "built" it had put the windshield in with black silicone and sheetmetal screws in the corners with washers on them to hold it still. The cab had also Tacked brazed instead of mig welded. talk abouta piece it took longer to clean up that mess than it did to rebuild the truck. Dad just could not understand why I had turned down that cute truck when I looked at it and while I was gone they [the guys trying to sell] called dad up and made him what he thought was a good deal. That year was1989 it still burns white hot in my memory. Jim

[Grumpy old man]

Many a new owner have fallen in love with some else's project only to find out later why it was for sale . anything can be fixed given strong will and full wallet !

[ZombieWeinerDog]

im figuring that out. i think the rails are easily fixable. the wiring however is screwed up big time. i connected a battery to it, and nothing besides the headlights worked. this should be fun.

[faribran]

sure like your truck.. but i dont care for all the white stuff on the ground... !

[ZombieWeinerDog]

Originally Posted by faribran

sure like your truck.. but i dont care for all the white stuff on the ground... !

it is terrible. i went to put together the engine outside (shop is snowed in, can get the trailer in.) slipped and fell on the ice. then i found a valve cover bolt broken off in the head. there are a few holes i found after wire wheeling the rails. shouldn't be too hard to fix.