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Originally Posted by oceansrealm
I agree with most here that if you live in a coastal area especially, then you have to keep an eye on that roof. I have tried rhino liner and all sorts of paints on my repairs and have found that the most robust solution so far has been repairs with bondo an/or fiberglass then a generous coating of flex seal. The flex seal is extremely tough and provides a nice buffer to the rubbing of the pop top gasket. I also put a light coat of silicone grease on that pop top gasket to provide a bit of lubrication between the flex sealed areas and the top. The flex seal has lasted longer than anything else I have tried and seems to stop rust dead. Eliminate moisture and oxygen and you will slow the rust significantly.
I know there are way more solid fixes, but I feel like automotive paint does not stand up to the rubbing and the roof tape traps moisture. For a DIY solution I am very happy with it.
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So my 1997 E350 had surprising roof rot around the drip rail caulking. Even though the whole body was pretty clean from rust, I watch the roof bubbling for some time before breaking down to repair. I was surprised how much rot was under the calling.
I did not do any welding but instead used waterproof shorthair fiberglass filler body filler. This is much stronger than normal filler and especially the red non-waterproof stuff. Generally, you want to put this on clean scratched metal (60 grid scratched by hand in crosshatch). However, you need to push the bond up inside thereof where it is rooted through and there is no way to get in there or even make sure you are selling it with the Bondo.
So I first did the recommended prep work for the POR-15, let it cure then sanded the area where the bond needed to stick and then the rest (which was mainly inaccessible) would just inherently be wedged in. It worked and the bond adhered very well where I was bare metal and where was pushed inside the roof it had enough mechanical grip from being pushed into the inside it was not going anywhere and everything was sealed. I painted the whole top with POR-15 and then coated it with the white roofing elastomeric paints (it is AZ)
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BTW if you need to repair termite riddled wooden doors and windows, then the waterproof bonds work extremely well. I use a two-part wood restoration epoxy to fully impregnate the wood first (turning to plastic) and then apply the waterproof Bondo.