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Hey guys so I have had some rust issues on the roof of my truck that has progressively gotten worse over the past few years. This is a south Florida truck so I have heard it is common for this to happen. It is especially bad on both rain gutters and around the cab lights. I took the truck to the body shop last week and they quoted me $1200 to remove all the rust and repaint the roof. This does not seem like a bad price to have it done in the near future, but I am a kid in college and will not be able to pay that much to have it done until around summer time. I am wondering if there is anything I can do to temporarily fix the rust/slow it down as it is starting to rust through in some spots. I am not a body work expert but I am good with tools and fixing things. I will attach some photos of the rust, if anyone has some guidance for me that would be awesome!
Possible temporary solution... wirebrush the spots to mostly good metal, wipe with solvent, then paint. The spots on the flat part of the roof can easily be rattle-can, or hit with brushed rusty metal primer before a top-coat from a rattle-can. I would pull the light to wirebrush and paint under it. .
For the gutters, you have two additional issues. Looks like you already have some actual holes in the passenger side gutter, and there is a seam under the cracking sealant in the gutter. I would consider a multi-step process for the gutters. First, wirebrush to get as close to good metal as practical. Next, spot-prime just the areas around the holes with a rusty-metal primer. After that dries well, fill the holes with some form of epoxy. Once that cures, I would mix some rusty-metal primer with some solvent and boiled linseed oil so it's very low viscosity, and work a liberal amount into the gutter and seam area. The idea is that that the thinned "goop" will seep into cracks and crevices, and the linseed oil keeps it more flexible than straight paint. After that cures for a few days in Florida sun, top it with a mix of white, thinner, and boiled linseed oil to cover up the primer.
Idea is to seal things up and prevent further deterioration until you decide to do a permanent fix. I had good luck fixing leaking seams in the gutters with the paint-thinner-linseed-oil trick. Boiled linseed oil should be available in a decent paint section at a home store.
Possible temporary solution... wirebrush the spots to mostly good metal, wipe with solvent, then paint. The spots on the flat part of the roof can easily be rattle-can, or hit with brushed rusty metal primer before a top-coat from a rattle-can. I would pull the light to wirebrush and paint under it. .
For the gutters, you have two additional issues. Looks like you already have some actual holes in the passenger side gutter, and there is a seam under the cracking sealant in the gutter. I would consider a multi-step process for the gutters. First, wirebrush to get as close to good metal as practical. Next, spot-prime just the areas around the holes with a rusty-metal primer. After that dries well, fill the holes with some form of epoxy. Once that cures, I would mix some rusty-metal primer with some solvent and boiled linseed oil so it's very low viscosity, and work a liberal amount into the gutter and seam area. The idea is that that the thinned "goop" will seep into cracks and crevices, and the linseed oil keeps it more flexible than straight paint. After that cures for a few days in Florida sun, top it with a mix of white, thinner, and boiled linseed oil to cover up the primer.
Idea is to seal things up and prevent further deterioration until you decide to do a permanent fix. I had good luck fixing leaking seams in the gutters with the paint-thinner-linseed-oil trick. Boiled linseed oil should be available in a decent paint section at a home store.
Thank you for the reply man! So I am going to attempt wiring brushing/sanding down to as close as bare metal I can get. As for filling the holes would something like JB weld work? I will attach a photo of the stuff I am talking about
JB Weld is something I have NOT worked with. I do not know how well it spans large gaps, which might be a concern when you see how big your holes are after cleaning them up. You want to get down to clean metal, scuff it up, and preferably get some of whatever epoxy-like stuff you use behind the lip of the holes, so you have a good mechanical bond as well as surface bond.
I have done some fiberglass repairs on kayaks, so the "goop" I have on hand is thin marine epoxy for laminating glass, and I have glass fabric on hand... so that's what I have a bit of experience with. But with runny epoxy, you need to use glass to soak it up; otherwise the thin epoxy just runs into the hole.
Any epoxy alone won't span a large hole... it will be kind of brittle and get pushed in and break. That's when you need a thin, laminating epoxy and glass to make a strong enough "patch". If your holes are more "stick a wad of chewing gum in it to plug it up", then a wad of JB Weld should work. In either case, good surface prep following the instructions, and follow instructions for mixing and curing temperature and time.
And after whatever you use fully cures, I would top-coat it with thinned paint/linseed mix as a sealant, just in case there are any unsealed pinholes.
JB Weld is something I have NOT worked with. I do not know how well it spans large gaps, which might be a concern when you see how big your holes are after cleaning them up. You want to get down to clean metal, scuff it up, and preferably get some of whatever epoxy-like stuff you use behind the lip of the holes, so you have a good mechanical bond as well as surface bond.
I have done some fiberglass repairs on kayaks, so the "goop" I have on hand is thin marine epoxy for laminating glass, and I have glass fabric on hand... so that's what I have a bit of experience with. But with runny epoxy, you need to use glass to soak it up; otherwise the thin epoxy just runs into the hole.
Any epoxy alone won't span a large hole... it will be kind of brittle and get pushed in and break. That's when you need a thin, laminating epoxy and glass to make a strong enough "patch". If your holes are more "stick a wad of chewing gum in it to plug it up", then a wad of JB Weld should work. In either case, good surface prep following the instructions, and follow instructions for mixing and curing temperature and time.
And after whatever you use fully cures, I would top-coat it with thinned paint/linseed mix as a sealant, just in case there are any unsealed pinholes.
Hope this helps.
I have experience repairing surfboards with fiberglass sheets and epoxy resin. I think I am just going to go ahead and take that route to get a flat paintable surface.
