Hrmm. Not hoping to tackle this myself I can visualize the amount of work as being fairly significant but then it has to be put in the proper context. If you're one that thinks nothing of doing a frame up resto. then it's not going to be that big of a job. But if changing your oil and belts is something you farm out then it's going to take on a whole other meaning. You'd have to cut the old cab roof out and then weld the new one on. As MaxTek pointed out in this thread, replacing the cab roof is not going to guarantee that this won't happen again. That's the sad part.

 

All,
The 73-79s are plentiful in the yards these days. Now is the time to seek out a donor cab. I could pick up one for about $125. The real problem is the work involved.
On the other hand:
There are ways to do a quick fix? You can get out a sandblaster and/or a grinder and take out the rust. Then you can simply fill in with bondo. i have used a product called "Duraglass'. It is a fiberglass reinforced body filler and it is quite versatile depending on your tools and imagination. I have literally reconstructed rain rails from this stuff and hidden it with chrome trim. I'm not very proud of it but I drive/work my trucks. I respect them, not baby them.
Consider it,
KingFisher

 

why bother using parts from a junkyard when you can still get them directly from Ford, brand-new?

 

I would love to get a brand new cab from FORD so as not to go to the junkyard.

 

All,
Am I detecting SARCASM! Did someone infer that going to the junkyard wasn't one of the highlights of their life's? I believe you may be on the wrong website? My buddy and I go to the junkyard at least once a month, whether we need to or not. We just recon the yard for new treasure. This last weekend I got a full Instrument panel, headlight & wiper switch, A/C registers and flexible A/C ducts for $22. Plus I filled my pockets with fasteners and proprietary hardware.
The junkyard is a gold mine when it comes to saving these old trucks.
Consider it,
KingFisher

 

I need to update the evaluation of the drip rails on my truck. Now that I've had the thing for a couple of days I'm starting to take better notice of what's what. There's so much to check out when buying one of these things and, admittedly, I spent a lot of time under it and not so much gawking at the outside. Anyhow, last night I noticed that the rails on my truck are not the originals. I started to notice this before I test drove it on Saturday. One of the rails was bent at the end (passenger side, next to windshield) and I thought, man, that's pretty thin metal. Also, the rails don't have chrome trim on the outside (aren't they supposed to?).

But what really highlighted the fact that they are not originals is all the spot welds along them. Plus, there doesn't seem to be seam filler along the edges after they were spot welded on and that might explain why one of them (driver's side, next to windshield) is rusting to heck. So I guess you can replace them this way (you need a single-side spot welder). The trick is fabricating them. How do you get that arc and still have a single piece of metal running along the cab inner side?

 

Toolz,the chrome trim is not standard, that was part of the Ranger package Or XLT package if I'm not mistaken

dfisher1, no sarcasm from me, it seems that most of this conversation is about the drip rails and replacement cab's, I don't know where you are going to find a dealer with a new 79 cab but I sure would pay a pretty penny for 1!!

 

Okay. Thanks ranger for clarifying that about the chrome. I wasn't sure about that. Saw the truck on the front of the haynes manual and thought the chrome was standard.

I must say, my drip rails do look pretty good for the fact that they're not the originals. Just wish the one on the driver's side was in better shape (with less or no rust).