Roof treatment

[freebird01]

Well as i work on my dually i keep looking at a rusted roof typical of a truck from florida (this came from there)...

I keep thinking maybe doing just the roof (above the drip rails only) with a roll on bedliner. Dunno if its herculiner or something else

Thoughts?

 

[icanfixall]

How bad is the rust in this area. No matter how bad it is you are going to have to get all the way thru it to clean bare metal or the rust will continue growing. Even with a bed liner job on it.

 

[freebird01]

Its all heavy surface rust....figure ill clean it and treat it with some SEM rustshield then coat it with some sort of bed liner maybe...save me from painting the roof and be a durable finish too...

I have no plans on parting with truck anytime soon so im not worried about resale....and its not the whole body... just above the drip rails where it wouldnt be seen very well....

 

[freebird01]

anyone else want to weigh in on this?

 

[73idi88f350]

anyone else want to weigh in on this?

may make the cab extra hot ??

 

[The Warden]

may make the cab extra hot ??

I would have guessed that it'd have the opposite effect...a thick enough layer could provide a modicum of insulation.

I don't really have anything to add, unfortunately, but I'm very interested in what you end up doing...I'm trying to work out a way to rust-proof a truck as much as possible. I still have some time to think it over, but as many options as possible would be a very good thing

 

[tbrumm]

Sounds to me like you have it figured out. If you are not sandblasting to get to bare metal, you will definately need to seal the rust first with something like POR 15, Chassis Saver, Rust Bullet, Rust Encapsulator, Etc. Etc. All are a really dense, heavy duty non-porous paint that seals the rust off from getting water and oxygen. Deprive the rust of water and oxygen and it has a hard time "growing". I am just getting ready to repaint the underbody of my truck in preparation for another salt laden midwest winter. I am using Eastwood Rust Encapsulator on the underbody, and then painting over that with thick coat of good old black rustoleum. One thing to consider with the bed liner - it may be harder to spot repair or touch up if needed. If you use just paint, you can always scuff, clean and repaint. Good luck with your project and remember: rust is our mortal enemy!

 

[freebird01]

Im not so worried about the how....more about the why...why should i or shouldnt i..

 

[GOOSE]

That sounds like a good idea to me. My kids love hanging out on the roof and the extra protection would be good, also dampen the noise in a heavy rain and protect from hail. I would opt for white or something light in color to reflect the sun. I would consider taping a line behind the clearance lights so the paint finish would be seen above the windshield.

 

[junk]

Unless it's a trail rig I personally hate bed liner anywhere, but beds, bumpers, and the lower rockers. If you ever go to paint the roof correctly later on it will be a mess to clean that off. If it was me I would clean it up, put the rust shield on it like your suggesting and then spray or roll a primer and then paint on it for protection. A buddy of mine roll painted a beater car that had surface rust. It held up good and didn't look too bad. Best part is you could sand it off later pretty easily if you ever wanted to paint it up.

If you do the bedliner I would also be concerned about how well it cleans up? Is it going to hold dirt, bird poo, bugs etc. Must be cleanable, but just saying.

 

[yARIC008]

I would do it. Infact I'm going to do my roof soon, and the insides.

I'm going to use this, http://www.monstaliner.com/monstaliner_faq.htm

From what i've read it's way better than most of the others and UV proof and all that. I got the rust stopper stuff and then the actual bedliner stuff in white. The rust stuff supposidly will seal it 100% and now allow oxygen to get to the metal anymore and therefore stop the rust.