Rusty Troopy

[Canyonero 4x4]

Just bought a troop carrier with a heap of rust in the gutters.

$4000 for a new roof skin, installed, painted and everything, all mickey mouse, from a well known smash repair. But I don't want to spend 4g on a roof for an 18yr old truck.

It was suggested that I cut out and replace sections at a time. Then fab up an external rollcage and mount the roof racks to it. Preventing the cracking and rusting in the gutters. It was suggested I silver braze the sections in, thus using less heat, causing warps, holes.
Another mate has told me it may be illegal to silver braze car body parts together.
He also suggested scrapping the gutters all together and just have it smooth if I mount the roof racks to a roll cage.

So, Does anyone know if it is okay to silver braze car parts or not?
I'm also very open to suggestions and ideas on how other people have gone about removing rust.

[Thommo 73]

i use a mig for all my repairs...
alot of older car are braze, and on top of that the police wouldnt be taking paint off your roof to find section repairs.
you will do a much neater job with a mig and going slow.

good luck and dont listen to your mates that havn't done it

[Canyonero 4x4]

Thanks for the advice mate, I'm pretty new to the 4x4 scene and often have to stop and think about what mates suggest. Being a plumber, I should be able to get my hands on some oxy coz I can't weld for shit. Might get some steel pretty cheap to so it should all work out

[dow50r]

The easiest way would be to buy a wreck with a good roof, sell the parts and use what you need.or.drive it till it runs out of rego, and put 4k to what you sell the parts for and buy an 80 series

[hiluxmad]

some wreckers will sell roof cuts unpick bits you need when you have time and bugger all leftovers. just a thought

[rockcrawler31]

if i recall correctly the troopy roofs are glued on, and brazed at the pillars any way. the gutter rail is spot welded to the top inner rail and outer skin of the body. The roof is only barely structural (consider the number of troopy brit vans out there). The reason troopy gutters rust is because they are unpainted behind the inside of the gutters, so if you have the roof off, take the time to paint and rust protect while you are at it. I agree with the idea of getting a roof from a wreck if you can. At the end of the day they aren't that complex a shape to fabricte, but a fairly big flat area that could be hard to get dead flat.

you might be stuck between a rock and a hard place if you can't find a wreck with a good roof. I bought an entire 2001 troopy cab with minor damage for 1900 bucks so theres a starting point. Might be easier to just swap everything over to a good cab

[Thylacine]

I went through the same process a few years back.
Best option for me was buying a 2nd hand rust-free roof from wreckers (still on vehicle) which they cutoff, freighted 100km to my local repairer who then cut my roof off and replaced.
Can't give you a break-down on prices, but do remember that I got change from $2K.


ed