I have a truck with a sun visor that has been screwed into the top of the cab that I would like to remove. Once it’s gone I’ll be left with a dozen holes that need to be filled. How would you guys go about filling them? I can paint and weld but would like to avoid a ton of body work.
Do you have access to the back of the hole? Just slide a section of copper flashing behind the hole, hold in place with some good magnets and then fill the hole from the frontside with a MIG or TIG welder. Shouldn't take much. Then just grind them flush, finish and paint.
can you get to the backside? If so, back with a piece of copper and drop in a tack weld to fill from the top.
Unfortunately I can't get to the back side of the holes. Looks like the cab is double walled.
If it's an older truck I'd put new screws in the holes and paint over them. If it's newer truck then I have nothing , other than weld and body work.
There is a whole range of options depending on the trucks age / use. If it is a beater you could simply put small squares of metal tape over the holes. Alternatively you could get some little rubber plugs from the hardware store and put them in the holes. Or you can fix it correctly by welding the holes closed and then performing the appropriate body work and paint.
you need cab clearance lights.
^^^ most definitely. I don't care if it is a Mazda B200
Invisible repair = weld+sand+paint. Plus maybe put a neat wow into the roof panel cause the shrinking weld will do that and without access to the back, hard to fix.
How long does this have to last? Plastic plug and some JB weld on the back will get you several years down the road before the sun eats the thing.
Rubber grommet style if you prefer:
Or if you want some Bling:
caulk and paint. Some shoe goo is ok to paint. The metal door to my house has this treatment. Went from awful to passable.
Pop rivets if you just want to fill a hole.
Find an old hot rod type guy that does lead work.
If you were closer I would suggest we try my nifty propane soldering iron and lead bars that I bought to solder the copper downspouts on my house. I realized recently that it might make a good way to fill holes and do small body work.
Duct tape..
Pop rivet+rtv before you pull it tight.
I'd like the repair to be presentable but the reason I hesitate on welding them up is because some are close to the rubber around the windshield and i don't want to warp the roof. I have seen people use solder but don't know how that holds up.
Solder will hold up just fine. But it does cross into the sand and paint territory. Solder wont warp the panel either as the solder does not have enough strength to gather in the tin as it cools and contracts.
I've used the hole punch-outs from this to help fill holes in bodywork before, drip rail molding holes on a '81 Chevy PU. Punch out is 3/16" IIRC but I dimpled the hole and MIG welded it in. If ya can't bridge the hole w/ all solder maybe help fill it w/ them.
That is a decent looking truck I would do the weld it up grind sand and paint. The key to welding that is not applying to much heat at first burning the hole bigger. You have to build up an edge on the hole with the welder and then grow that across the hole. The other thing is to work on 2-3 of the holes at once so you don't put to much heat in to any one place at one time. The biggest problem I can see is dealing with the molding and trim on the A pillar. I see more holes in the center and I assume that there are more on the other side. I would consider removing the windshield and take the time and do it right and you will end up painting the roof unless you want to attempt a fade in the middle (not what I would want to do).
If only you had a matching red visor that uses the same holes, you could seal it with some silicone and screw that period-perfect visor right on there, using the existing holes!
But, I get that's not what you want.
How serious are you on the cosmetics? People don't often look at the roof of a truck.
Glue some aerodynamic thingys over the holes.
Before using flame don't forget the headliner if it has one.
oh, THAT truck. I'd look for some of the plastic push in plugs that fit tight and dab a little black RTV around the cap before installation. At least for right now. That will keep them water tight while you fix/ upgrade other stuff and still look decent. Get your drop and wheel/tire choice sorted out, get the interior freshened up, etc. When you eventually get to doing it right I'd find somebody to lead them if possible.
Filling a hole with a MIG should not be hard. The chance of warping the sheet metal is greatest if the metal is flat. If the section is curved it's much less. Also if you fear that just weld a little at a time.
When I built my race car it had a sunroof. The rules allowed me to remove it and patch the hole. Most guys just pop rivet a panel on but I chose to weld it on. I just did spot welds with my MIG and just moved around the perimeter so that each weld had time to cool before I got back to it to add additional spot welds next to it.
For filling a hole you just add a bit of metal and go to the next hole. With the number of holes you have you won't really have to wait for any to cool down as they will be cool by the time you get back to them.
You guys who advocate welding are missing a big chunk of what causes a low crown panel to warp.
It is NOT just the heat. Metal heats and expands and then cools and recovers all the time without warping.
The one thing that can not be avoided is the fact that the weld bead shrinks.
Picture if you will your bead of weld going on and being the size of a quarter when it is fresh out of the MIG maelstrom and in liquid form
Picture that molten metal cooling and contracting to the size of a dime as it freezes.
Now, realize that as it cools, freezes and contracts, it is also firmly attached (welded in fact) to the metal that you put it on top of. The shrinking weld pool is gathering this surrounding metal as it cools and shrinks. The result is unpredictable distortion in the surrounding metal. Kinda like a little black distorting the universe.
"Stopping to let things cool" is valid advice in that you dont end up with two things going on at one (metal expansion and bead shrink) but it does not do anything for this situation. Blasting with the air hose makes it worse and don't ever quench a weld bead.
The fix is to squash the weld bead by beating on it with a hammer and dolly so that the gathered metal can go back to where it came from.
A decent MIG with the right settings and wire diameter should fill those holes pretty easily. I use the small.023" diameter wire with good results. It's the "right" way to fix it if that matters to you.
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