Wow, what a commitment! Cutting into the body on this truck is intimidating to say the least. I've done some messing around with my mig, but never anything this challenging. What a schooling!
When I've been researching this I've not found very much info about what lies under the roof skin, like where braces are and how things are spot welded together. I went to the junkyard and cut the roof out of an 84 blazer to use part of it for patch panels and to cut it up to see how it's put together.
So far my to do list includes the windshield frame above the glass, floors, bedsides, and tailpan. I sold the top and tailgate cause I don't have room to store that stuff and cause I want to use a soft top and truck tailgate instead. Hope I don't regret that later.
In Baja this past winter whenever I'd get on a rough road little bits of rust would rattle out of the headliner and fall in my lap. I was expecting it to suck pretty bad when I took things apart, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Here's some pics from first stage.
Rust above windshield frame.
2017-06-14_08-11-52 by
Mick, on Flickr
Decided I needed a dome and map light so while the roof was apart I placed the wiring and made a bracket for a light out of a '98 Tahoe. Backseat light actually cause it's a bit smaller.
While the top skin was cut out I used some of this stuff.
http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-int...z-aerosol.html
to spray around inside between the layers and down the A pillars. Also used to hit the inside of the pinch weld after things were put back together. Not sure it'll make a big difference, but makes me feel better.
A bit later I'll post some pics of the cut up junkyard roof so you can get a better idea of what's going on under the top skin.