My '53 has some rust at the point of intersection between the roof and the gutter. In fact, the rust has actually eaten away at the flat piece of sheet metal to which the roof is spot welded, as well as a bit of the two-piece window frame. I want to replace as much damaged material as I can. This rust doesn't extend up on the roof panel more than 3/8 inch above the gutter, but does extend about 10 inches either side of the cab center line. I have a beat up cab which has this portion of the roof in tact, but before I start hacking up the beat up cab or my beloved old truck I wanted to ask if anyone has dealt with this problem in a manner more elegant than stuffing the damage with glass and bondo.

 

I had a heck of a time finding a good cab here in the rust belt of central Illinois. I finally resorted to hacking up two cabs to make one good one. The one you see me working on in the auto body class pictures below had a bad roof. It was rusted out in the middle where it got dented and water pooled. It was also rusted out around the drip edge. I contemplated chopping it at the door pillar and rear window opening for the swap but I was concerned about preserving the door and window openings. I ended up drilling out all of the spot welds on two cab roofs. Ugh! The auto body class starts again tonight and I plan to get the roof skin on the cab and work on the other problem areas like the corners and hood hinge mounts. I plan to use a panel adhesive to reattach the roof. The stuff is really strong and since the roof skin isn't a primary structural member it will work out fine. It will be stronger than having a spot weld every couple of inches. It will also seal out corrosion. Here are a few links to what I did. I have higher resolution pictures, if you are interested. This is more involved than what you are considering but may give you some insight to how the various seams and joints go together.

Roof Repair Page 1
Roof Repair Page 2
Roof Repair Page 3

Good luck!

Kevin Kessler
1953 Ford F-100

 

Nice work Kevin, you and your Dad are doing a good job, it's gotta be the toughest repair on a truck.