Filling screw holes in the roof - ideas?
 

After parting with my old 89 4runner a month ago, I finally got around to picking up a new truck. Its a 92 4x4 pickup with 120k, super base model (no ps), and I think at relatively good price (time will tell).

The former owner did a couple unfortunate mods to the truck. One was a glass pack muffler (currently at the muffler shop), and another was one of those goofy visor things on the roof. You know, with lights. Like a big truck.

It was attached with 1/4" self tapping screws straight into the roof of my poor truck :(

At this point I'm thinking of using some sort of clear epoxy to fill the holes, since I don't plan to paint really anything on this truck, but I'm not super stoked on that plan. The holes aren't clean at all, and also its about to rain here in western oregon for about 9 months straight..

Just wondering if anyone has a better idea, and also if anyone might happen to know of somebody in the pdx metro area who is good with quality repairs on this type of stuff.

Thanks!

Smooth out, bondo, sand, paint.

:wabbit2:

I am in the same boat. I have 20 holes in the roof of my cab where Winnebago went nuts attaching the canopy on my Trekker. I practiced filling the holes in a junk door with my crap HF welder and just made them bigger, even on the low setting. I was Hoping to talk a buddy of mine that is a body work guru in filling them for me, thAt pLAn is out since he said he hates doing it...

Maybe if you know someone that can do sheetmetal you might get lucky...

And it is only supposed to rain for 8 months

1/4" hole is huge, any type of body filler needs a backing. Do not use Bondo brand, it flat-out sucks. Marglass makes a fiberglass filled mud, but the best way is to clean any rust out then weld them shut. Then you just need to top coat it or prime it. If welding is out of the question for now. Clean the rust out of the holes, POR-15 the bare metal, and fill with some RTV or permatex. Then you could easily remove it after the rainy season and have them filled with metal.

Filling holes with a welder is tricky. Here is what I do:
Clean the area good, no contaminants.
Gas is preferred by flux will work
Turn you voltage down to the range you would use for the gauge metal
Now turn your wire speed up a bit more then normal
Make sure you have a good ground, grind an area
Now grab your gun, and angle it like you are going to build a weld on the edge of the hole.
You are now going to weld in short 1sec bursts moving your gun around so the area heats but doesn't burn.
This definitely takes practice, but becomes a very helpful tool.

if you don't care about looks at all, RTV silicone them shut and be done with 'em in about 5 mins.

otherwise, a typical body repair process is grind, bondo, sand, paint, just like Wabbit said.

Best thing to fill it would be to take a big, short nail and push it through the hole so the head sits right on top of the hole. Weld that shut and then grind it down (with a flap disc, not a grinding wheel). After that you can prime and paint or add some bondo and prime and paint. Whichever you like.


:dj:

.

And that there boys is how it's done...

Just don't use galvanized nails, the coating is really nasty stuff.
Scuba, that's a good suggestion, I've never tried it, haven't needed to. I am curious how it works, differing thickness of metal may be difficult for the diy welder/person. A hint would be to start welding the thicker nail metal first then, lick the thin sheet metal as to not burn thru.

Welding galvanized anything gives off noxious fumes that can be potentially lethal! So, yea, be very careful about what nail you use. An old "Hot Rodders" trick to filling in holes and gaps is to use an old wire coat hanger (in place of the nail), for filler.

I had to use the nail trick to fill a lot of holes inside the bed when I did the bed bob.
Its not that big of a difference in metal thickness between the head of the nail and the sheet metal. Besides, you won't be running beads. Its more of a tack here, tack there, type of deal.

Find a TIG welder and it's a piece of cake. Nail trick sounds decent, make sure you stay away from galvanized nails.

Hmm, you're right OCdrop, october is almost done so we're lookin at 8 months max =)

Thanks a lot for the all the help! Welding hadn't even occurred to me, that definitely sounds like the ticket. I don't actually have a welder or now many metal dudes, so its probably permatex for the winter. The actual holes are only more like 1/8", i was thinking of the hex head size. So not so bad, but still.

Anybody wanna buy a sweet blue visor (with lights!!)?

Hey guys, Scuba great idea to use one of those big flat headed nails. I had the same problem when I bought my truck in October. The PO had a light bar screwed into the roof of the truck so now there are eight open holes in the top of the door gutters. I never though of spraying any rust preventative in the holes but I just bought a small tube or bottle of some silicone and closed the holes up temporarily that way. I put a small amount in the hole and feathered it out around the holes too. It was raining a lot then and I made sure the silicone was pretty weather resistant as I was going to take care of the holes next summer. It is now -20C here! So it'll take a while to take care of but as far as I can tell the silicone has been holding up. Let us know what you ended up doing with those holes.

god i hate those visors..............just sayin