Replacing the Drip Rails and lower Rain gutter
 

Time flies...

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...p-missing.html

When I got the car, I was planning on replacing the rusty drip rails and gutter 'next winter', and that was 2014...

The 'bubbling' hasn't gotten any worse, but still...
Attachment 48064015

But look what arrived from ZIP today:
Attachment 48064013
Attachment 48064014

All new rubbers, pinch welt and cap arrived also.
Now to call my body shop and see when they can plan this job...

One would think to do this job right you must remove the quarters and roof panel

Without seeing any other photos of the extent of the rust in the gutter area. The one photo of the bubbling paint I have seen and have repaired MANY times without replacing the part.

I know that replacing the part and using good current seam sealers will do the trick...because that is what caused this to rust and bubble is the seam sealer GM used dried up....cracked ...and has allowed water to get in behind this metal part.

If the photo you posted was the only area of bubbling rust...I know I would fix it...or at least get in there as see how bad it actually is...which does a little bit of time....but less than replacing...and I am only writing this because the last one I did was about 5 years ago and the last time I saw it which was few months ago...the bubbling has not shown up.

Seeing how you have the parts...I guess replacing is what you plan to do....because like I wrote earlier....I do not know how much more rust you have to deal with.

DUB

I did the drip rails on my 65 and it was a lot of work. First, you have to drill out all of the spot welds on the rail sections. Then you can work on the shoe section. I your photo, the problem looks like it is in the shoe section only. If that is the case, just fix that part. If you find rust after you remove the old shoe, you can probably fix it without removing a lot of the fiberglass. A local shop quoted me 40 hours to replace the drip rails. It took me longer than that to get everything right. You really should use a Corvette shop for this job.

Doc

I understand the recommendation on using a Corvette shop. Unfortunately, those don't exist here in Belgium :ack:

However, I have a very skilled friend with his own body shop that can do this. Just need to find the time in his busy schedule...

I agree with DUB that the damage may not be that extensive to replace everything. Problem there is you can only find that out when starting the job. If it turns out to be too bad, and I then have to order the parts (which are in backorder most of the time) and get them to Belgium, the car will be at the body shop for too long. So I gambled a bit and ordered the parts beforehand... Let's hope I need to put them on ebay later, but I'm not counting on that :D

I have done a couple of these for people. Little time-consuming but with the grinder and a mig welder it's a relatively easy job. The hard part is paying for those $700 gutters. If it's just the gutters and not the superstructure no body panels have to be removed.

I can completely understand.:thumbs: If I lived over seas....and have to order in parts and wait for them....I would have done the SAME THING. I would at least have the parts on hand so if needed..I did not have to wait. I hope my comment did not come across otherwise.

This work is not rocket science. A competent body man can do this. It is not job that only a Corvette body man can do. I am sure your friend will have your back and do their very best. That is all that matters. Using all current rust presenters, weld-thru coatings and sealers so this problem NEVER comes back.

DUB

Ok, so it seems this thread will be frozen for a while, as my friend's schedule is fully booked and he asked if we can do this next winter...
:toetap:
But that's probably a good idea anyway, given the fact that the repair isn't urgent and the driving season is just starting now.
Car has been sitting the last 3 months so I'm going to plan this around november/december 2017.
More time for driving and other little jobs now :thumbs:

He is going to repair my body mount # 3 also at that time.
To give you an idea what he can do:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/vie...ostorder=asc..

To be continued! :lurk:

NO DOUBT that he has the ability. That is for sure. A TRUE CRAFTSMAN!!!!

DUB