Started working on the drip rails today......Finished!
 

Scraped and wire brushed the old sealer from the drip rails and was pleasantly surprised to find the rust wasn’t too bad. Gotta clean it up some more. Then rust mort, primer and new sealer.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

I started out doing the seal replacement. I found a bunch of bondo in a dent on the front of my roof skin. Now I'm replacing the skin.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

Can you guy tell me what seam sealer you are going with ?

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

It's been a few years now, but I believe I used a 3M self leveling sealer designed for applications like the drip rail. I got it at the local paint shop. That is probably the best bet is to ask at a paint shop.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

I think I'm going to use 3M 08307. I've read it's pretty runny so you have to be careful with the vertical parts behind the doors

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

I need to tackle this I bought 3m 08367 tube says you cam apparently it directly to bare metal.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

Sem

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

Guy at FinishMaster suggested this. It is what he uses. Not self leveling but has about a 30 minute working time. Figure I’ll try it in the vertical parts and if I like it keep going. If not I’ll stop and use a self leveling sealer on the horizontal.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

I just went through a bunch of seam sealing for the first time. Vertical surfaces do require the heavy body stuff (or the medium body self leveling if you can), but I wouldn't use it for anything that would show, once you get a peak it's always there. I would buy both types before you start. I used SEM brand.

I would also suggest using painters tape liberally to keep the lines clean and the sealer where you want it. Before the working time is up, peel the tape up and you get a nice edge.

But thanks for posting this, I'll be following along as the PO of my truck used bathroom caulking for the drip rail. I'll be hopefully fixing it before the fall.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

Got to get to this on my truck as well. What kinda of scraper did you use to chisel the old sealer out? And anything special as far as shape of wire wheel you found most beneficial? (picture?)

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

As far as a scraper goes I bought a couple cheap wood chisels of different sizes. One really narrow for the vertical part of the drip rail. Used a hammer and sharpened the chisels as needed.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

I used an old screw driver with occasional help from a hammer. Some of the tighter areas I used a broken hack saw blade. Then I finished with a twist knot wire wheel like this:

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

I went with the old sharpened chisel and occasional hammer. I then finished with the wire wheel on a grinder. It was much easier to clean out after I took the outer roof skin off. :lol:

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

Following.....this endeavor is in my near future

Re: Started working on the drip rails today....Finished!
 

Finished it up this weekend. Sorry I forgot to take pictures after I put in the seam sealer but before paint. Here’s what I did:
1) removed old sealer by scraping with old screw driver (with occasional help from hammer) and a broken off hack saw blade to get in the tight spaces then wire wheeled.
2) liberally applied rust mort ( phosphoric acid) to areas that had surface rust and tried to get it to run into the spaces between layers over the A pillars.
3) thoroughly cleaned then painted with epoxy primer using a foam brush to work the paint into any crevices.
4)Applied seam sealer I showed in previous post in this thread. It is okay, has about a 25 minute working time. But it does not self level. I had to tool it quite a bit using paint reducer to allow a bit of smoothing. End result looks similar to a factory tooled sealer. If I had to do it again I would use a 2k self leveler.
5) shot 2 coats of primer sealer. I had to go out of town for a while so I sanded between coats of sealer.
6) 2 coats 521 white.

Can’t see the seam sealer very well in the photos since it is all white with very little contrast. But the newly painted roof sure makes me want to do the rest of the truck!

After paint cures a bit more, I need to reseal the windshield gasket, reinstall the clearance light and door/ window weather strip.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

Looks awesome and something that is on my to do list this winter!

Did you do anything special around the windshield and rear glass to get under the weatherstripping? I peeled mine back and there is a few spots of light surface rust but I’m trying to avoid pulling all the glass. Did you just DA the flat/slighted curved large area of the roof outside of the drip rails?

Re: Started working on the drip rails today....finished
 

I did pull back the weather strip around the windshield and inspect it. The only place I had any rust was along the upper edge a few inches in from each corner (where there is also a seam). I cleaned and rust-morted those areas just like up top. I also stuffed parachute cord (about 3/16 in diam) under the weather strip to get it away from the body so that I could prep there and get a little paint under the weather strip. (you can still see the tails sticking out from the bottom of the windshield). It was too tight along the back glass so rather than fight it I just masked the weather strip in place.

As for the rest of the roof I had a screw hole to weld shut (as well as some holes in the upper window frame of the doors from past life mirrors) and several scratches in the paint that I sanded out by hand. (Only because I was out of sandpaper for the DA).

This was my first time painting a vehicle or using a HVLP gun. Overall it is not too bad, I would call it a 5 footer. If someday in the future I really wanted to do it up right I would take all apart, pull all the glass etc and really make it nice before painting. But, I want to drive the truck - not have it in pieces all over the garage for a year or two. This was really about learning and stopping any potential future rust problems from having bad drip rail sealant.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

A 5-foot paint job would match the rest of my truck perfectly! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Did you do anything to neutralize the acid before you primed? I have heard varying things on that. Did you do anything with the seam on the back or just leave it as is? Seems like a few guys weld it or fill it.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

Not a good area IMHO to use acid. It can leach into areas that cannot and will not be neutralized.

There are lots of things I wished I had done differently so not picking. Your finished work looks great.

Re: Started working on the drip rails today
 

As per instructions I washed it with water. In hind sight you are probably correct in that I did not properly neutralize those areas I couldn’t wash well. I was following recommendations of the auto paint shop guy.

I left the back seam as it was.