Thread: Tree Crushed 2500HD Silverado Crew Repair

What $707 of refinish supplies looks like today. 10 years ago $707 would have covered the entire job. I only have one gallon of single-stage paint exterior, 1 quart of single-stage interior, 1 quart of Urethane Primer-Surfacer, 1 can weld primer, some spot repair filler and reducer.

After a off site repair for a friend this morning I was able to get on my replacement Cab Roof to precision cut the metal that needs removing before I paint the underside or interior of the roof. I read numerous posts that these little saws don't work. I am also using Harbor Freight's saw blades 32TPI.



I have a Inside Track membership at Harbor Freight so I picked up 2 of these saws for $17 each. I bought 2 because of all the bad reviews. A name brand saw can go for as much a $275. I oiled it well and ran with no load for 2 minutes to help seat the vanes before placing under a load. A 3/8in or High Volume air hose is required but I just used a 1/4in hose. Higher air volume makes the saw more powerful. Taking my time not to load the blade too much (it makes any reciprocating saw blade cut crooked) I followed the lines I marked and it cut great for me.



Maintaining a shallow angle this little saw walked straight thru the A & B Pillars.



I cut the inside of the B-Pillar first making sure to cut all the way thru on both sides. Using 3/4in masking tape to pull a straight line I connected the two cuts using the tape as a guide.



If my layout is right which it's very close this will be a easy swap.



All the trimmings will be saved. The plan is to tack some inside the Truck Pillars before setting the roof on so I have metal inside the welds. I can carry the weld puddle tying all 3 pieces together for a very strong joint.

Well the factory paint was very thin on the interior side and best I could tell there is no factory primer under the interior paint. A small rust bloom was in the depression for the center roof reinforcement so after sanding all the rust out and using a red scotch brite to prep the original metallic green paint to be painted white I shot 2 coats of PPG Refinish 375 Epoxy gray down first.



This is a couple of pictures after the first coat of 2K Urethane Single-Stage was applied. They didn't put a lot of paint originally so I shot on one medium coat and let it flash for 15 minutes. I should say here when I attended a painting class with Jon Kosmoski (Creator of House of Kolor Paint) he stressed let the first coat of Urethane really flash and it makes it hard to run the following coats.



I laid on the second medium heavy coat of 2K Urethane with my Sata HVLP Gun all around the sides where the white shows in the interior slicking it down including the Center Roof Console mounting area. Now it has to cure for a week before turning the Roof over to prep and Paint the exterior.

Flipping the replacement roof over on the dolly first thing was to remove all the old material in the windshield channel. Some rust spots are in there from poor windshield replacements that must be blasted to white metal, loose flaking paint from a previous paint job (not the OEM finish on the outside), all the sealer & primer used for installing the windshields had to be removed (even in the spot welds), and all paint down to the metal.



Once I completed that I noticed when the roof was repainted the paint up against the door seals would flake off with fingernail pressure so all of that had to be taken down to at least the factory primer. The Drip Rail area is often either overlooked or just poor, lazy paint prep because this is not the first or second time I have seen this issue but seems to be quite common in newer truck paint jobs. You have to remove the door seals when repainting. This causes rust due to trapped dirt holding moisture.



The 3rd Brake light area had rusted out previously, bondo was used for the repair, the previous rust was not properly blasted to white metal, so the rust came right through.



I decided since this truck has a dedicated camper shell which is bolted on permanently to just delete this light so a panel is ordered with the body roll all ready in it so I can weld it in fixing the rust in the process. I have to wait a while for the panel as they are made to order so a update when installing will be posted when it's done. I did prep the opening for welding though except the sand blasting part as our humidity is close to 100% daily right now. I don't want to bring the roof outside.



The clearcoat on the paint job seems pretty hard judging by how it's cutting with 180 grit 3M paper on a DA sander so I sanded the rest of the roof top with 180 grit (machine) and 220 grit (by hand) removing any shiny spots. Before I topcoat this roof 3 good coats of PPG Refinish Epoxy will be applied locking down any possible issues with the old paint. Nobody can see on the roof, I never hardly wash it so it's getting the mother of paint coating so I will never have to fix rust on it again.



Both these back corners that are not sanded still must be removed. The original cab was pushed over in this area so these 2 parts will have the spot welds cut out, the panels removed, all the body seal sealer cleaned off, and weld thru primer added to the bottom of the cut areas. There is a roll over type of reinforcement on the inside that I will have to weld in place first then the outer body panels installed nearing the end of the bodywork.

This is gonna be way better than new for sure. Great cuts, and great job cleaning things up for the marriage. Big job, you do superb work Roj.

Hey RoJo,

I've gotta ask.... why not just replace the cab?

Originally Posted by jig rig

Hey RoJo,

I've gotta ask.... why not just replace the cab?

Body Shops wanted $20K to install a used Cab. I'm not doing a entire cab because I have had the dash stripped out all the way to the firewall for HVAC service. I even had to remove the steering column to complete the job. I replaced the firewall insulation while into it. $400 for that insulator from the dealership. The winter before the tornado I put $5K of OEM parts under the hood. Pulled the engine down to the short block and replaced everything, it took a while. Handling a full Crewcab Cab by myself is a job I can't handle. Actually the approach I'm taking I can handle it just looks bad. I grew up in body shops. A cab was $2000 and totally the wrong color. I'm going to be in about $2500 doing this myself including paint. While the Bed is off I plan on rebuilding the Rearend and dropping the gear ratio from 4.11 to 4.56 since all I do is tow with this truck. Maybe put a Locker of some kind, a selectable Locker while in to the job.

Well I started about 6:30am this morning back on the truck. Carefully cutting on my layout but leaving a extra 1/4in on the B-Pillar for further fitting later. Happens I was exactly 1/4in too high on both sides but no worries as I had enough metal left to work a much tighter fit as I fitted the two sections together. I'm fried so a long description of every picture in not this post. This is a picture book post of sorts, you can see the progression to a good fit up.



For a chuckle I did take a picture of the current Drivers Seat, Nice Right?