Portions of the drip rails on my truck were totally rotted out and as always that rust had migrated into the roof. The body shops I went to wanted about $800 more to repair the rust withhold keeping the drip rails than they did to fix the roof and shave the rails. So being a poor college student off tw drip rails went.

Before:









I havent gotten the truck back yet but here's some pictures of the progress:

 

Looks good so far did the weld the panels together or just fill it with filler

 

Welded up everything. Wasn't able to make it over there an take a picture tho

 

Good deal did they put a lip over the door at all so water can't get in the door?

 

The trucks he showed me when we were discussing it all did. I havent seen the truck in person to know for sure. I live about 45 minutes away so a friend of mine sent me the pictures.

And starting this summer the truck will be garaged 90% of the time so im not super worried about that

 

Looks good. Thats one of the few places on my truck that are actually solid, heh.

I had considered shaving mine, but I think I will keep them now now that I know exactly what it looks like with them gone. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

 

Thanks so much for posting those WIP pictures, thats exactly what I'm discussing with my my paint and body Guru, so these pics help me envision the process. Like you, my truck will be garaged 90% of the time, so the functionality of the drip rail in not a great concern.

 

Ok got more pictures. I stopped by the shop today, the truck was just painted and I can pick it up tomorrow.









I really like how it's coming out

 

That's lookin awesome. Any more details on the process?

 

Well when I asked my body guy about it originally he treated it like it was a piece of cake to do, just cut it off, weld up the seam, smooth it out and paint. However when I talked to a neighbor who did it himself on his 50s Chevy pick up he said it was a pain in the rear to do.

He started cutting it off and found out that it's a seam and that if he cut more than a couple inches off the top of the roof would start coming off so he cut a couple inches at a time welding as he went.

If I were you I would take it to a body shop that's done this before. Everything that gets worked on in that is visible and would look horrible if messed up

 

Got the truck back yesterday and the drip rails or lack there of came out awesome, here's a couple pics I'll take some more tomorrow

 

definitely gonna use a trusted source. I like the look so far.

I'm sure there's some tricks to retian the original contours as you add and remove the rail gully, but at the end of the day, its art.

 

The body guy also made sure to adjust the doors after the rails got shaved to close any gaps there might be. You can't tell in those pics but it makes everything look super clean.

 

Good Point, My passenger door is always needing tweaking. That'l have to be part of the pre-negotiations.

 

Ya that was included in the work from this guy cuz it also cuts down on water building up in the door.