[cumminsturbofreak]

Now I’m going to have to pull headliner and dismount all lights to properly paint and seal it.🤦🏻‍♂️

EDIT: Just wonderful. Looks like my truck had the roof panel replaced at one point. There are metal shaving on top of headliner, and roof is black primer inside when it should be painted. Just my luck. 🤦🏻‍♂️

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

Are those factory installed cab lights or were they installed by a previous owner?

My thoughts are the less openings, items and clutter you have in your truck's roof, you car's roof, your RV's roof, your house's roof, etc, the better.

Zero cab lights, zero sunroof's, zero anything.

If you are going to keep the truck, I would be tempted to throw all the cab lights in the trash, weld up, finish and paint.
It would be pricey, but end of cab light water leaks and rust forever!

Yes factory cab lights. It’s on the window sticker.

I’ve never had any water intrusion issues with any of my 3500s. Only issue on my 12 was the 3rd brake light.

Since I was coming from a dually, I liked the look of the lights and wanted them on the 2500.
However, I didn’t want to deal with adding holes and touch up paint, so I opted to buy a truck equipped with them from factory.

I’m going to have to pull them all, possibly grind and paint…

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

After more digging I can tell the roof skin was replaced at some point.☹

Skin inside is primer black when it should be red, and also there are fine metal shavings on top of headliner. So now those hand cut holes make sense.

I don’t know when it was done as nothing is on carfax. Maybe damaged in transit and repaired before original owner purchased, or maybe damaged and repaired right before I bought it…

I don’t know and now the good new truck feelings are gone…

Maybe I should go trade for a GM like @mattswaggs because I have bad luck with Chrysler lol.

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

Sorry to hear that too...

Is the hood original? Fenders? Doors? Box? Cab?
Has the entire truck been repainted?

Hopefully the roof wasn't replaced because of a rollover or something serious but something minor, like hail damage.


I'm sure you closely inspected the used truck before purchase but now it needs a really thorough and close inspection.

Accident repair, repaint, flood damage, frame repair/repaint, etc, etc.

I checked everything before purchase. Everything is original. Truck was deleted before as there was an extra nut sitting in the DEF tank X member when I was down there “inspecting.” Also there’s a CSP5 switch hole on a dash panel, and the tail pipe had black soot when I looked inside.

I’ve been underneath the truck and everything is perfect. It’s just the roof. And it was painted so well, I couldn’t tell until I saw the primer underneath.

Nothing else was painted as I would be able to feel feather or hard paint lines. There’s none of that anywhere. Even front fender bolts are spotless clean.

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

Fix it all up, as I'm sure you will, and forget about it!

Yep. Just wondering if I should grind, treat with phosphoric acid, and epoxy prime, or just clean and POR it…

Part of me wishes I never looked up there, but at the same time, I’m happy I caught the rust where it’s at.

I’m just way too picky about my vehicles. @Jaysz28 knows what I mean as he has my old 04 now. I replaced so many things on that truck because it bugged me. Hell, I even stripped the trim off that 04 myself for paint because I don’t trust shops to do a good job.

So I guess the takeaway from this is I still haven’t found the perfect truck. 😂

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

So I pulled headliner.

It was glued in like a windshield!

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

Did some scraping with a file, cleaned, metal prepped, and rinsed. Now time to dry and apply POR.

I’m wondering if I should use 3M Bedding Compound, RTV, or Silicone gel on light gasket when complete…

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

POR applied.
Going to use 3M Bedding Compound on the clearance light gaskets. I’ve used that stuff inside the Benz trunk gaskets that like to hold water and rust.

Going to use 3M Bedding Compound on the clearance light gaskets. I’ve used that stuff inside the Benz trunk gaskets that like to hold water and rust. Worked well then and we’ll see how it works now…

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

Does that include under a wet tarpaulin?

Perhaps @Electrojake can chime in with his expert analysis.

Like this thread needed more derailment….

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

If we lift our little pickups like that, we’ll break the frame in two.

 

[cumminsturbofreak]

Back in 2017, Jimmy used to give me a hard time for washing my vehicles so much. It was hard to look at this much salt.

View attachment 968874

Whoever's keeping that H3 in the salt is doing the world a favor.