Repairing a rollover

[fordtrucksforever]

I picked up a `98 XLT extended cab last month. Has a 4.0, and 5 speed. Been garage kept and in very well maintained in perfect condition...until the guy rolled it. I paid $400 and brought it home. If an automatic, I would not have bothered with it. I replaced both fenders, $33 each new, hood $54 new, and both electric mirror assemblies $24 each new. The grill was salvagable but replaced it for another $23. I got the cab pushed back out and everything lines up and fits now. The top still has signs of a major crease on drivers side, and really needs a lot of hammer/dolly work before covering everything up with bondo. So I decided just to replace the whole top. The spot welded seam is mostly hidden all the way around, so I bit the bullet. Went to the junk yard and cut a perfect top off from several CFC choices. They wanted $125 minimum to cut the top for me. Since they didnt allow any dangerous power tools in the yard, I had to sneak my sawsall in. Anyway I got out of there with it for $54. I have everything pulled off and ready to start drilling out spotwelds and replace the top. Just curious if anyone has some insight on what I am getting ready to do. It looks fairly straight forward, but just covering all the bases before I jump in the deep end. The rest of this truck is clean and straight. So when the paint dries on front sheetmetal and top, I will have, a new to me, nice truck to drive around.

 

[wvcat]

I've always just replaced the cabs but if you go to a body supply shop they will have a spot weld drill bit that I have heard makes life much easier

 

[metalmacguyver]

Post up some pics. This sounds like a pretty cool project, not a build but a resto...

 

[fordtrucksforever]

I had considered replacing the cab, but would have required all of the swap over in parts plus a complete color change to match. This way all I have is to paint the top. I have a box of small cobalt mill drills that work great for spot welds. I have duplicated floorpans and replaced them on Jeeps and early Broncos before. Just never a major structural panel like the top. There are a lot of overlapping joints that I need to be careful about splitting apart. Just trying to get as much input possible so ther wont be too many suprises.

 

[bcost882]

i might have kept it as a slightly damaged dd. but i wanna see this it is like the safari dudes thread on extending the cab. i think replacing the top(as long as you can weld and are good with bodywork) will be good practice for things to come....

 

[rockin86ranger]

are you replacing the whole top or just the roof skin?

 

[fordtrucksforever]

The outer skin including the front inner reinforcement panel above windshield only is getting swapped. The rest of cab is undamaged. I pushed the top back out, but around the drivers side windshield is still lacking about 1/4 inch for the windshield to fit properly. It is much easier for me to replace the panel than all of the body work involved to make cosmetically right. Since all of the spot welds are covered, there will not be any filler needed. I do have to remove the back window since the top skin folds down to the lap joint behind it. This eliminates the file and sanding time needed just to repair the panel. Just a few places with some seam sealer before primer and paint.

 

[fordtrucksforever]

I spent this afternoon drilling out spot welds. Then very carefully I pryed the layers of sheetmetal apart. Eventually the top peeled away and was removed from truck. Was not difficult and didnt damage any of the existing structure thats not getting replaced. I cant believe how much mess a shattered windshield can make. There are shards of glass splinters everywhere. I started drilling out on back of cab after removing the rear window. Then worked around above the doors and finished at the top corners of windshield. Then folded the top up and over on the hood and tore away the broken glass. Next I will drill another hundred or so spot welds and remove the material from donor top thats not needed. Next will be aligning to fit new top then weld back on. This has actually been kinda fun to do. I guess the real reward is going to have a nice looking truck when finished, thats all paid for.

 

[zukirider21]

sounds like an interesting project, some pics would be great!

 

[fordtrucksforever]

Well it didnt take as long to remove all of the extra substructure from this donor top skin thats not needed. A few spot welds were being stubborn, but lost the fight. The new donor skin is nearly ready to install on truck and then fill all drilled out holes with a mig welder. I have been taking some pics of what it took to do this repair. If there is enough interest I can do a writeup on cardomain and add a link here. There is one big downside to this fix......my hands and fingers are all cut, scraped, and skinned up, from bumping against the sharp edges of metal being drilled and seperated. If they sufficiently scab over by tomorrow, I should be able to clean up all of the drilled out spot welds and edges with a small ginder than set the top on truck. Maybe have the truck back in one piece by the weekend. Hope there are no snags or suprises. It will be nice to get the truck ready for paint and then finished.