roof rail question

Today I've started to handle some rust issues on my 63 econoline van. One of the former owners has tried to repair the roof rail (I think this is the english word for it) by welding on some pieces and filling everything up with silicone sealant. After years in the sun, the sealant has dried out and water is getting stuck under this sealant, some parts of the roofrail are rusted trough, on two spots it has also rusted through the side of the roof. I've just spend a couple of hours peeling out the old sealant, now I just have to clean it up and try to weld the holes.



One of the former owners has also installed some kind of roof rack, existing of two pipes on the roof. Does anybody have an idea why they have installed it this way? I can only imagine they've used it for mounting stuff on the roof.



you can also see the rail on this picture.



And last, but not least, a final question about the sunroof. There is a sunroof mounted on the car, this roof is just to high for me to easily park the car in my garage. I always have to make sure there is some dead weight in the back of the van to drop the rear of the van to get enough clearance. I also think this roof is installed in a bad way, it's simply screwed in and then made waterproof with some sealant.



I'm thinking of welding the gap, but I'd really like to mount a flat sunroof. Does anybody know where i can get one of these. Or is it easy to modify an exising roof from another (modern) car.

I hope you can catch the drift of my story, my english isn't perfect so...... anyways thanks for checking it out, I hope to get some reactions.

Greetings from Holland, Ron.

That is an air vent not a sunroof.

Looks like theres only 1 of the roof rack things so it was probably used to attatch a tarp or an awning over the doors.

Then again,I think I see the other one now so maybe not?

Looks like a bit of a bodge to me. As already suggested above, i would guess some sort of boat was attached to the roof, as you couldn't attach something flat between those rails... Also, they are awfully close to the roof as well.

I would remove those and if required, do something a little bit neater....

Sy

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the quick responses.

Okay it's called a roof vent and drip rails. I just couldn't find the right words for it.

I figured the roof racks were meant to tie something down, I just found it a weird construction (and ugly). Especially because they are mounted so close to the roof.

Anyways, I'm gonna remove the roof racks, and will trie to cut out as much of the rotten drip rails as I can. First I'm gonna trie to fabricate new pieces of drip rails, unfortunately the worst spots are in the corners, so that won't be easy.
Hope I can find the purple power and seam sealer stuff here in europe.

The topic about the drip rails was very interesting, I was already wondering how that was constructed. When I was removing the sealant, I saw an edge inside the drip rails. That turns out to be the edge of the roof.

For the roof vent I will go and see if I can find a lower one, maybe from a boat or something. I hoped there were some kind of small sunroofs available to replace the roof vent.

Again thanks for the responses, and keep the advice coming.

garageinc.
That rail looks like an "Awning" mounting tube. Is there one on the other side?

Hey Danthevanman,

Yes the rail is mounted on both sides of the van. What is an awning mounting tube???

In the 60's we had a camper. It had a tube bracket that same size. My dad had a canvas awning that rolled up and stored in the camper. It had two holes in the outer corners for the pole and tie-down ropes and the other end was four flat hook shaped brackets that attached to the tube. It made a little shade awning and you could move it to either side of the camper.

Something like this....

i have the same drip rail problem as garage inc have tried spot putty after clean up and using some rust inhibitor but not happy with it, it also had been sealed with chalking by previous owner so i am still digging and sanding it all out. but will look for seam sealer, does anyone know the brand name and who carries it.

thanks donivan i 'll make a trip up town and get a couple tubes, i never think of napa as we are surrounded by pep boys, advance, o'rielly and autozones...

wow thats stuff is expensive at napa 25.00 a tube, bought four tubes on ebay for 25. including shipping only difference is its beige instead of clear and tubes are cut short.

You should really use a urethane based seam sealer on the gutter. Standard seam sealer is meant to fill gaps no bigger than 1/8" and could shrink over time forming cracks.

I used a Proform product... http://www.proformproducts.com/en/products/detail/?id=81