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Hello, so as you can see above I've posted some pictures of the cab crease that is a usual spot I heard for having rust issues. This is my 1976 F150 and I would like to keep this from rusting further until I can get the money to do a full paint job on it. I'm interested in keeping the paint as is. It looks like it's barely starting to rust. So I have an idea of getting some clear silicone and covering that crease up to stop oxygen and water from getting in there. What do you guys think of that idea? I know it may look a little silly with some clear silicone there but I really wanna make sure this doesn't get out of hand in the future.
perhaps and this just a suggestion , is use por-15 epoxy , fill the crease it will be white but clean up edges an you will have small crease and use a green marker or something to hide , there is also a por-15 thick black filler in a tube you could use but would need to be careful to keep off paint , perhaps tape off area to keep only in crease which would be good idea for anything you decide to use and could still use some type of marker or a green touch up paint to just keep the obvious away of different color ,maybe even clean out crease carefully an knock off surface rust best you can
Looks pretty minimal to me. If you are planning a paint job in the next few years it will probably be fine til then. If you want some protection I'd clean it really good and wax it. You could give it a light coating of oil as well, regularly. If you are really worried you can take your headliner down and try to check out the other side with a mirror, camera, or scope. You can POR15 the inside and no one will ever know once you put the headliner back on.
Edit: Hard to tell from the pic, but this looks more like your primer coat than rust to me.
If you plan on painting don't put wax or oil in a area that will cause new paint to bubble later. If you want a temp fix tape off both areas of the seam and spray clear glaze on it. Its a thick clear and will seal it up. Don't use silicone on or near a paint job for obvious reasons.
I mean, you're going to have to take all the seam sealer out, clean, and prep the area for paint anyway, so I don't see the harm in wax or oil. Still, this looks like primer to me.
You could try some thin rope/ribbon caulk and use a green sharpie as suggested above. It wouldn't be to tough to remove once you get ready for paint.
Our truck needs new paint now, so we used a pick to get the original sealer out
cleaned it the best we could
then used a hobby paint brush to coat it with Eastwood rust converter
then primer, then new seam sealer
When we prep for paint eventually, the seams won't be an issue.
I don't suggest using our method since you have good paint, but where that seam meets the drip rail can let water in to rust away the drip rail area.
These pictures are from opposite sides, but the same thing happened on both sides.
This should scare you enough to at least stick some gum in there. Tried putting paste seam sealer in. It didn't last long because we didn't stop the water from the outside.
What is in the seam, that is cracking, is not seam sealer but drip check sealer, 2 different things.
Check with a local body shop / paint supplier for 3M drip check sealer. Might find it on line also.
Also look on line for an acid that kills rust.
Dig out the cracked sealer, check the drip rail and do the same.
Then use the acid to kill the rust.
You can then use the drip check sealer to fill the seam and the drip rail.
It will now be sealed from the weather and you can prime & paint over it to look factory.
You can use the sealer in the seam & rail and as long as no bare metal is showing can be left that way other wise it needs to be covered.
BTW seam sealer would be used at the firewall to cab and floor to cab & firewall.
It looks like it is brushed on as it comes brushable and in a calk gun tube.
Here I used brushable seam sealer on the edges of the panels I replaced, also used it on the bottom then 2 coats of roll on bed liner.
Dave ----
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