I spent probably a bit too much on my new truck but I'm loving it other than the little emissions problem.

The problem is, I've got 3 rust patches visible. It's obvious someone spent some good money on paint at some point, this isn't an earl scheib paint job.

None of the patches look horrible but the one on the tailgate is all the way through. That repair should be easy, it could be painted black, it's not that visible.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6z1j5s0iyt5xjjr/-n9LG9JdVP#f:100_0296.JPG

The door, looks pretty easy too but the link to the pic seems to be broken.

The spot over the passenger side windshield won't likely be easy.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6z1j5s0iyt5xjjr/-n9LG9JdVP#f:100_0271.JPG

So I sold my economy car to buy this beast, haven't had an older vehicle for some time.

What would you do? Just live with the rust or spend the money now on repairs?

I fear if these pieces are rusting out, others may show their faces and wonder if it wouldn't just be better to let it age and re-do it 4 or 5 years down the road.. I would like to obviously slow or stop the existing damage.

 

The rust doesn't look too bad, but will progress fast if not fixed soon. You want to save as much metal as possible before it gets too bad. The tailgate would be last on my priority. I'd start with the spot above the door. If you don't mind having some mismatched paint, I'd sand down the area to see what you have. If it's just surface rust, than sand all the rust down to bare metal, primer and paint it. If its a hole than you'd need to cut out the hole and weld in a new patch. If it's a pin hole after you grind down the metal, you could use some fiber stranded water proof body filler, primer and paint. It's one of those things that you could be opening pandora's box by diving into it. If you find a large hole or really thin metal, it would need to be fixed right away and be a nice sized project. That would be the spot I concentrated on first to fix because if it gets worse, you don't want to be messing with more rust around the window, door jambs, drip rails etc. You would be looking at replacing the cab if rust gets too bad around that area. The good thing about the roof is that you could always repair that, tape it off from the rest of the truck and re paint it with a matching color and it will look decent. Than move on to other areas when you plan on doing those repairs and then repaint the whole truck. I wouldn't let that roof go too long, but the others can wait a bit and much easier to fix IMO.

BTW, it's a very nice truck. Love the custom interior work that has been done.

 

Thanks for the response and compliment. I'll drag er down to the paint shop when the carbs get done. I wish I had the skills to do it myself and I'll just cross my fingers it's not too bad. I don't have the luxury of a garage now so it's going to be seeing weather.

 

I am in the process now of repairing similar rust above the door and also down the drip rail. I recommend dropping the headliner and look from the inside. The rust you are seeing started in the lap joint. It is very important to stop this now. I have removed my complete roof on my super cab to stop this and to keep it from ever happening again. it is bear metal in between the lap joints and most likely what happened is that the drip rail sealant deterioated and allowed water to wick in at one point in between the spot welds.

 

4x, thanks for the response too. I think the drip panel's where it started but just today I found another bit of bubbling on the drivers side so It could have just been a bad seal around the windshield. Found another bit on the drivers door that's really bad towards the bottom on the inside.

I just got a quote, $1600 to $2000.00 and when I asked him how long the paint would last before rusting again he said 5 years if it's seeing weather. That part concerns me, don't wanna be doing this too often. Maybe I better learn how to paint and do this work myself

I guess that's part of the price of owning an older truck, probably shoulda listened to the advice on the forum and offered him less when I bought it.

I thought about adding a 2 tone paint, with the black in the center, he quoted me another thousand for that addition plus whatever the trim costs. I think it'd look good but plain silver will be ok too.

 

No problem, When I'm done with mine I shouldn't have the problem again. I am going to treat it with rust bullet and use weld through primer. When I reattach the roof skin I am going to use body panel adhesive down the drip rails along

 

Nice, Very clean, I can't wait until I get mine in that good of shape. If you don't mind me asking, is that the original color of that truck and if it is What is the paint code. My truck's color is very simular, but I'm not sure if it's the dark or the light, due to the condition. To your question, it's always best to stop cancer sooner than later.

 

It's not the original paint and the prior owner didn't have a paint code, all he knew is they called it "nickel". If after I do the work the painter can give me a code I'll be sure and post back here.

 

I hate to say it, but from experience that paint cracking/bubbling and rust above the windshield around the drip rail is bound to be more extensive than it appears. Several ways to address this, some more costly and time consuming than others. The only permanent fix i can offer involves removing the roof one painstaking spot weld at a time. All the rust in the drip rail seams and in the sub structure should be media blasted, repaired and epoxy primed. I even removed the drip rails on mine (they needed replaced anyway) and there was plenty of rust behind them as well. None off this substructure under the roof is painted (as shown in 4xFordFreak pictures), just some seam sealer externally applied at the factory. Couple the seam sealer wearing away, condensation on the inside of the roof, leaky seals cab lights visors etc. and these trucks love to rot out along the drip rails.

On the other hand an easier approach would be to remove the paint on the affected areas, blast out the rust, weld or use seam sealer to seal the holes, epoxy prime and paint over. This approach depending on several variables (extent of rust, weld or seam sealer used, environment where you live, garaged, etc.) could provide a repair that may last the life of the truck or not long at all. I'd venture say this is why, to be safe, your paint guy gave it 5 years, which i agree with.

In this case i would let sleeping rust sleep, that is until it grows to much to ignore or you find the drive to face it head on. Figure it will be about 5 times worst than what you anticipate.

Enough with the negatives.... That is really great looking truck you got there!