Roof rust. Do I fix it or forget about it?

Just wanted to get some other people's opinions. So my Tacoma has rust as many of them do but it has some on the roof, the worst of it is by the windshield. Everyone I've talked to has said to fix that part I'd need to pull the windshield, which is not something I want to attempt. It's also got rust in a few other spots but I figured those would be more manageable to tackle myself. So I got a quote to fix the rust on the roof and the corner of the box (two worst spots) and it came to a total of just under $4500 CAD. Is it worth it? My truck has almost 311,000km on it and part of me wants to make this thing last the other part is telling me to just leave it and move on. For context as well, I am in college and don't have much time or money in the first place to be spending on this. What are all of your opinions? I've considered just leaving it and putting all my money aside to buy my next truck but that won't be for another few years. Do you also think fixing the rust on the roof will help my resale value? I'll attach pictures below. The roof has not rotten through yet but I think it may be close.

 

If you forget about it too long. Water will be in the truck.
Cover it with something.
Sand, body filler, prime, and paint.
It doesn't have to look good. Just be functional.

 

At the very least, go get some wet sand paper, clean up the area and primer it.

 

Do NOT ignore that rust, as its going to spread and eventually you'll loose the integrity of the metal. If you have no money, like Soggy said above, you can get rid of that mess. You can wet sand and smooth the entire roof out. Then hit it with some a few layers of gloss clear coat. Allow it to cure and then vinyl wrap the roof in black.

 

I worry your windshield glass channel will also be really bad. Since water is naturally going to pool inside there and creep under existing rust.

 

Fix it right away. Almost terminal cancer as it is. Treat with stop rust and paint.
Once the windshield starts leaking, you're screwed.

 

^
Doesn't take a college degree to figure that one out.

 

If you don't have much money, even an ugly fix is far better than pretending it isn't there. Sand it down, get rid of as much rusted metal as possible, cover it with Bondo, sand that down, and prime/paint it with a rattlecan if you have to.

It's already very bad as it is, leave it too much longer and soon you're gonna have a very ugly uncloseable sunroof, with the premium Tetanus™ package. Priority is stopping the cancer where it is, hopefully preventing it from rotting out your windscreen seal area.

 

why don’t you just…

chemical rust remover
Sand
Paint white

maybe pull the windshield or have someone do that. If you even need to. Not that complicated.

 

Here’s what I did on a $40 budget:

- tape off sides of car and hood/windshield with plastic dropcloths & painters tape

- sand with 100 grit to remove surface rust and flaking clearcoat

- surface wipe with acetone to clean surface before painting

- spray with rustoleum rust converting paint

- spray with bedliner spray (I did 3 coats)
it took about 1/2 day for prep & paint but came out well, job done on the cheap

 

Sand it,then Rino line it the color of your truck.

 

Remove the windshield, POR15 and rust remove that stuff or replace the roof. If you ignore it will get substantially worse. Rhino line or POR15 will stop the rust and convert it to prevent further decay.

 

Its bad . Knock rust scales off you got some holes in your roof. That being said I would knock all rust scales off and treat with por 15 or similar product and cover holes some how . Even alluminum tape would be better than leaving holes in roof .

 

Id have the windshield taken out, sand the whole thing and use chemical rust remover. Clean it very well and then paint it with POR 15. And then I’d use a bed coating

 

It's bad man but you are young and can tackle it. Sand that shit off, that is the most important party. Then buy the rhino liner, tape off the truck, then roll it on. Just make sure you get rid of all the rust!

 

With that on the roof, have you carefully inspected the frame?

I'd be concerned about driving something that may be ready to fail. Roof leaks are nothing compared to that.

 

There is almost no rust treating of roof steel and some of those spots are going to rust through in a year or two, maybe even less. You NEED to, at the least, sand, chemically treat, and paint those bigger spots because they are BAD.

$4500 is stupid money but I'm betting, if they remove the windshield, they are figuring in a new one because they will almost always break when removing them.

 

my brothers 07 did this too, he sanded it down and spray painted it matte black and it looks good (his truck is black though)

 

My '05 roof was MUCH worse looking than this before I did anything and never had any leaking or other issues. I did something similar to what @DailyTacoMD notes above but it was admittedly a hack job by me so that only lasted a year or so. I eventually went the maaco route repainting the whole truck using their tier that was either their bottom or one up from that. It's been many years. I've had zero issues since then. To be fair, i wheel the truck and have plenty of scratches and dents from branches and rocks so a perfect paint job is not anywhere on a priority list of mine ... but i'm not worried about rusting body panels or leaking front windshields.