Rust Damage - Top removal?

[sully0812]

Okay... so stop making fun of me for having the rustiest Scout in sunny and arid Arizona

Here is my question. I've got some serious rust damage (i.e. fairly significant holes) along the rocker panels and along the interior walls, where they meet the cab floor. The floor's for the most part are reasonably solid, and the cab mounts appear to be in pretty good shape to me (though the body-bushings have seen better days).

I'd really like to take the roof off, but am concerned that with the rust in these areas, the roof has become an important structural element for me, and that if I take it off, I risk tacoing the body (or at the minimum, just having some really nasty body sag) when I open the doors. I'm going to post some pictures of my damage so that you folks can give me your opinions on it.

Keep in mind, the rockers are a little worse than they appear in the pictures. They were far browner with rust, however, I hit them with some white rustoleum to keep things from getting too much worse... and to "spruce up my appearance!"

[sully0812]

Here is the biggest hole in the drivers side rocker panel... some of the darker spots you see are small holes peaking through the paint as well.

[sully0812]

Here is the inside of the cab on the drivers floor. You can see the holes along the seem where the floor meets the inner wall. ou've got to kind of look close to notice the hole in the center of all that iron oxide.

[sully0812]

here is the same spot on the passenger side. This picture makes it a little easier to see the holes...

[sully0812]

Here's the passenger side cab mount.. It looks like it is in good shape to me. The drivers side is in very similar condition, but my picture of it isn't quite as well lit, so I'll only post the one since I'm already using up bandwidth and upsetting the folks still on dial up connections with this post!

[Frugal Binder]

have you pulled the mat up to see what it looks like underneath. Rust is like cockroaches when it comes to Scouts, the rust you do see is usually just a fraction of whats really there. I've had my top off and I can say my rust problem is probably worst than yours and didn't have any problems with the top off. I know I didn't think my rust problem was to bad till I pulled up my mats after my foot when through the floor and realized I didn't have a floor just support pillars with a layer of rust on top.

[sully0812]

And that's it for the pictures. I don't have any body sag yet, or problems closing the doors with the cab on, but I'm afraid that all that could change the second I take the roof off. I've seen Scouts that have no problems with the rockers rotted and the roof off... and then I've seen ones where you can't close the doors again after opening them, without jacking the body up from underneath.

I'm planning on taking a welding course at the local community college this fall.. but it will still be a while before I have the necessary skills and abilities to replace the rockers and patch the steel on the inside by myself, and at the moment, it's not something I can even come close to affording to have someone else do for me.

What do you guys think? Will I have a problem taking the roof off or not?

[Frugal Binder]

All I can say is your Cab mounts look cherry compared to mine and mines all but fell apart and the top went back on fine and the doors still closed. I would check under the mats where the floor rises up in front of the rear seats and see what rust you have there. Mine is really bad across there and caused my door pillar to crack on the bottom which makes my door sag a little but it stills closes.

[Buddha's Ghost]

Keep in mind there may be hidden rust on the top of the quarter panels under the hardtop. This could make it a major pain to reattach the hardtop if you were planning to. Taking off the top also exposes any rust that has occured on the windshield frame top due to the seal aging. I replaced my hardtop because of the rust and when I pulled the old top off I had to make new rails that sit atop the quarter panels as the old ones were rusted away to nothing (along with the screw fittings that hold the rails on). It's a good thing I have access to a sheet metal shop at work . Removing the top will also weaken the windshield frame, so if it has rust near the bottom corners be careful.

[sully0812]

Yeah, I'm already anticipating some rust on the top of the rocker panels... You can see it peaking through from under the top. (Though I wasn't quite anticipating that much, and I'm really kinda hoping that it isn't as bad as what you just described!!)

As for the window frame... which bottom corners do you mean? Inside near the window? Down where it attaches? Not sure exactly which spot you are referring to.

My window frame was actually in pretty good shape (at least from what you can see of it...) till this afternoon, when I picked my sister up at the airport, and the security guard managed to close the bar on me as I was driving through the gate. Oh well... just some paint and a small dent, the gate fared significantly worse!

Frugal Binder... Yeah, I've pulled the mats back. Most of the floor is in pretty decent shape, but where it is rusted, it is REALLY rusted. The rear half of the bed floor is useless, it looks like swiss cheese, but most everything else, except where I posted the pictures seems pretty solid. (at least until I 'discover' some new problems! )