Hi All,

I have a 79 B200 that in general is in good condition. It was a california van but has pretty bad drip rails and some other sections of rot rust. Unfortunately there are a number of sections in the rails where the rails themselves are flaky and have spread to below the rail and above on the roof. There is even a section on the front wheel arch on the drivers side that is rotted through where the water from the drip rail came down. The A pillar seams are also bad. The low end of the van is totally fine as it never saw snow or salted roads but when the rail sealer cracked as it always did, water was able to collect and destroyed the rails.

Whats the best way to repair this? My thought is to cut donor sections of vans that have solid rails and cut them maybe 2-3 inches below the rail and up on to the roof maybe 2-3" above the rail? I know there are lots of layers to the side/rail/roof assembly and welding that all back together may be difficult and just wondering what the best approach to rust repair in this manner would be.

Any help from anyone with experience on this would be much appreciated. Thank you for looking. A few example photos below.

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1987 B250 - Painkiller