[theastronaut]

I blasted the inner roof rails and drip rails this week, taking care to get the pitted areas really clean. If you've ever blasted rusted metal that has deeper/thick rust pits you'll wonder why POR-15 and similar products are so popular... the really bad rust isn't growing on the surface where you're painting and a "converter" or "paint over rust" product isn't going to help anything at that point.













One big thing that I wanted to address while the roof was apart was to do away with the welded clip that ties the front and side drip rails together. The factory left this area pretty rough with the two sections misaligned.







To start I used the factory line-up slots to position the front drip rail. The factory spot welds were also in identical locations between this cab and the donor cab.





I cut a section out of the old drip rails and used it to lengthen the side rail.







Loosely assembled to mark the front rail for trimming.





The fit at the A pillar wasn't the best from the factory.





I used a pair of end nippers to twist the end of the front drip rail into alignment with the side rail and tacked the two together.




Fully welded and welds smoothed.





I forgot to drill plug weld holes where the factory left out some spot welds, so I used the cut off wheel to grind small channels to plug weld.





I used a rounded over chisel to tighten up the fit of the drip rail to A-pillar fit.







Driver side finished. Having both pieces in-line and one piece now will go a long way in creating a clean and even door gap against the drip rail, and the seam sealer will look much neater with an even gap between the drip rail and the main roof rail.