Roof crack

Can anyone tell me whats going on here? Is this a layer of fiberglass that split?

 

Looks like Bondo, plastic body filler just spooned into a big dent, not the way it should be used BTW. Dig it out and see what you have. Probably a job for an experienced body and fender man.

 

Agree with chunk. Someone probably smacked it driving under one of those height markers at parking garages, or some other height restriction.
To do the repair job properly requires removing the headliner, which requires removing most of the trim inside, greatly increasing the labor.
Seems they elected to take a cheaper route. As chunk said, you'll likely need a pro. Good news is you can reduce the cost by stripping out the headliner before hand.

 

Removing the headliner from an AC is not hard, just tedious, take your time and give yourself plenty of time to take it slow.

 

It amazes me the lengths that people will go to just to do the job wrong. I once removed the headliner and pushed out a roof dent on a RCLB (not mine). The dent popped right out. The biggest pain was getting the headliner out. Not hard, but as Tundra2 said, "tedious".

 

Huh.

Obviously already answered correctly above; someone poorly used bondo to cover damage and the bondo has cracked because it wasn’t installed properly.

Looks like a tree branch might’ve fallen on the roof of the truck, or similar, and was filled with bondo, painted over. The bondo cracked (or water got under it) and water getting between bondo and the sheet metal is causing further damage.

The only real solve here is to rip out the bondo and see what you’re looking at for roof damage. You’ll need to treat the rust you’ll find (it may only be surface rust), take it down to bare metal, bondo properly, then repaint the roof.

 

Strong chance the stuff was applied too thick because rather than doing proper metal work and using it as a finishing touch to even everything out on properly repaired metal with some ripples they depended on the bondo to do most of the work.

A possible "get it ready for sale as quickly as possible" special after someone left the damage alone for most of the time they owned it. Slap it on, paint the roof, put a sign on it. Same sort of crap people pull with houses.

 

The rust underneath is what worries me the most. This is the 1st time in almost 2 years Ive ever seen the roof of the truck to my memory.. im not too worried about removing the interior or even popping the dent myself. Fixing the exterior surface and painting is another story..

 

dollars to doughnuts there's a "texas spread" of plastic filler on the roof

 

Big Surprise…

 

there is even a good possibility a good body man can actually replace the roof sheet metal

 

Retrofit on an OEM sunroof time!!

 

My automotive body shop instructor was telling a story about the time he had an employee (at the body shop he owned) that wouldn’t get very much work done during the actual shop’s work hours, but the employee would somehow always manage to have his particular job done my the next morning. And any time he did any bodywork, the part of the vehicle that was repaired would always be covered in primer.

My shop instructor became suspicious of the guy, so he spent the night hiding up in the second story loft of the shop. Turned out the employee never replaced any of the damaged sheetmetal. What my instructor witnessed, was the employee emptying a full gallon of body filler on the roof of a dented in pickup truck, mixing in the hardener right there on the roof, then spreading it all out smooth with a big squeegee!

The next morning my instructor confronted his employee about how he fixed the roof. The guy lied and said he sectioned out the sheetmetal. My instructor then proceeded to take a large screwdriver and stab and gouge into the roof of the truck, sinking it in about 1” deep. He then fired the guy right there on the spot.

My instructor was quite a character. A very nice guy and he was super funny. He coined the term, “texas spread”. He called it that because the body filler was applied so large and so vast, just like the huge state of Texas. So anytime a large amount of filler is applied, i too now refer to it as a texas spread!

 

I still want to see what's under the Bondo. If it's just a smooth dent, push or pull it out and clean it up, a couple of thin layers of filler, a straight line and R/O sanders, prime, spray bomb Dupli-color and Bob's your uncle. It's not a show truck and it's on the roof.

 

That happens over time with any bondo that was not done properly.
Bondo is porous and in a high humid area, the bare metal under the bondo can absorb humidity, or when they were wet sanding they got water into the bondo which wicked down to the bare metal and began the rusting.
The reason your bondo layer is lifting is due to the rust underneath it pushing it up and the bondo doesnt have anything to hold onto anymore. Time to get a wire wheel out and get busy and see whats under that layer of paint and body filler.

 

A few years ago @jpink had his roof replaced at the dealership.

 

Thats how I feel. Im hoping its a dent. I might try to feel around from inside the cab

 

More-so that it's way too thick of a layer. Whoever "repaired" that panel didn't actually properly repair the damage underneath and just slapped a massively thick layer of bondo on. Corrosion protection seems to have been non-existent as well considering the amount of rust that is bleeding through.
Bondo is supposed to be used as a finishing layer and not used as the actual repair.

 

Im going to pull the headliner this weekend. Has anyone done it? I found 1 video and one write up. Doesnt seem too bad but Im sure there are some tricks to it

 

I think the big thing, after redoing multiple headliners in multiple vehicles, is: Don't break the interior trim plastics!

You'll be pulling all the A-pillar and B-pillar plastics, the visors, the dome light, the sunglass/garage door/map light, and potentially seat buckles. The headliner tucks up under all of those things. Once they're all out, the headliner should effectively drop out. We AC guys are lucky, suicide doors make it such that, if you kick the seats all the way back and recline forward OR kick them all the way forward and recline back, there shouldn't be much finagling to get the thing out.

Now is a GREAT time to have some 80mil-120mil sound deadener (the higher # the better) from Kilmat, Siless, or NOICO on hand with a good roller. You can get rid of a good amount of noise by putting the butyl/tar based heavy mat on the big open expanses of the roof.

 

It's not bad, just a lot of labor.

You need to essentially start from the bottom up as everything overlaps. The lower sill plates, the lower and upper center pillar trims, the seatbelts, the windshield pillar trim, the "oh-shit" handles, sunvisors, overhead console, and so forth.

 

Oh and you reminded me - save the dome light and map light in the middle until last. Let those bastards do the heavy lifting of keeping the headliner up.

Try not to press on the foam/fabric of the headliner, when the foam gets old, rubbing or pressing on it too much can separate the fabric from its foam backing, and you end up with your headliner sagging... Ask me how I know (not on my 1GT, but previous vehicles)

 

I would dig the Bondo out first before removing the headliner. Depending what you find you might be able to pull most of the dent out. Either way it's going to need a couple of thin layers of body filler which is an acceptable fix. Just what I would do to save removing the interior bits unnecessarily.

 

I would love to avoid pulling the interior but I dont have any body tools to pull from the outside

 

Has anyone ordered color matched spray cans?

 

Duplicolor make good matches for auto finishes in spray bombs, but it might or might not be challenging to get a good result if you plan on painting the whole roof. For a spot repair cover I think it's doable and being on the roof I would try that.

 

@FiatRunner I think?

 

I ordered some from paintscratch.com. They guarantee color match IIRC. I just needed it to fix up where the PO had a battery leak at some point and there was a few mild corrosion spots around the battery tray area. It def matched really well, but I wasn't really trying to blend in or anything, just prevent corrosion. So I didn't do sanding, polishing etc. Just spray, let it dry for a bit and put the tray and battery back in. But color was definitely good (though my paint is in really good shape, esp for metallic green)

 

I’ve used color matched paint from Automotive touch up multiple times, they’ve always been great. Highly recommend. I haven’t been following this thread but if you’re doing some color matched paint, good clear coat is essential. Use SprayMax 2K clear, which is also available from Automotive Touchup.

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/?...CU7945tRCBBI54irj4tZ12mZDwFavtzkaArC-EALw_wcB

 

Like @FiatRunner ,I have used the Automotive Touchup brand on many occasions and also Dupli-color Plastic Adhesive Promoter that I had. The last project was my ARE tonneau cover latch. I was pleased with coverage and color match.