Gap between roof and structural components

[jballard81]

So I'm hoping to start body work and paint in the near future. I had the interior out today to replace the rear window seal and noticed this gap between the sheet metal and it's structure.

There's some significant Bondo on the roof already that I'm going to have to sand down. My question is do I need to do something about this gap? I don't want to spend a bunch of time fixing the roof just to have it flex and break again...

Cheers!

 

[franklin2]

Was it in a roll-over in a previous life? The subframe structure may be racked out of shape. Why are you digging out the Bondo? You will just have to put it back in correct? Is it cracked?

 

[pentode]

If you're concerned about that gap, I had my headliner out last week to patch a couple antenna holes and I found the gap a bit odd too but I think it's normal.

Edit: sorry it's not an ideal picture but it's the best i have. My wife snapped it as she found my janky backing for welding funny. Gaps look like yours to me though.

 

[jballard81]

Was it in a roll-over in a previous life? The subframe structure may be racked out of shape. Why are you digging out the Bondo? You will just have to put it back in correct? Is it cracked?

Not a rollover afaik. The old Bondo is cracked out to the sheet metal

Will eventually need to smooth it out and re-bondo in prep for paint (eventually)

I'm guessing the old damage was a tree branch at some point, can't know for sure.

 

[jballard81]

If you're concerned about that gap, I had my headliner out last week to patch a couple antenna holes and I found the gap a bit odd too but I think it's normal.

View attachment 112945


Edit: sorry it's not an ideal picture but it's the best i have. My wife snapped it as she found my janky backing for welding funny. Gaps look like yours to me though.

Very helpful. That's actually a good picture and I appreciate it! Looks like a similar gap to mine. Weird that they had some type of adhesive there that gave up at some point. Maybe it was a filler foam 30 yrs ago and it slowly turned to dust..

 

[pentode]

Very helpful. That's actually a good picture and I appreciate it! Looks like a similar gap to mine. Weird that they had some type of adhesive there that gave up at some point. Maybe it was a filler foam 30 yrs ago and it slowly turned to dust..

Yeah, I was trying to figure out what was going on with mine- it just looked very odd. There's some kind of squishy foam they squirted in there which I decided was probably sound-deadening and/or to prevent possible rattles, but it seemed like it shrank over the years and had detached either from the top or the bottom in some places. Still squishy on mine but not filling the gaps.
Tree branch is a good guess if there's no other rust anywhere. In my case there were 2 holes that were drilled to install antennas when it was a government truck; when I bought it they had just ripped out the antennas and slopped a bunch of silicone in there. You may already know this, but a small water leak in the roof sure does a number on the headliner in these trucks. I tried a couple things that failed and just buckled down and welded some patches in the roof and replaced the headliner (out of 10 Rangers at my U-pull there was one good one and funny enough, the rear passenger door was jammed shut from an accident and I learned you can't get the headliner out the driver's side without bending it. D'oh! I digress...)
Get 'er patched up!