When I was waxing the roof of my 1998 expy I noticed there was two small hairline cracks in the roof in the right rear and left rear of the roof about an inch or two infront of the tailgate. I'm going to silicon it right now until I am able to have it looked at. Has this happened to anyone here and if so what did you do about it?

 

My 97 F150, 99 F150, and my current 01 F150 Lightning all have at least one small crack by the "rain gutters" part of the roof. Word is a lot of other people with the same issue, I guess it is "normal"
I did what you plan to do, clean the area real well an just a little silicon. (white silicon... can't see it on my white truck) But I personally do not think it is worth having them repair it and try to match the paint when they repaint it. I will just keep an eye on the silicon. I can only see it when washing or waxing... I'm not worring about it.

 

Being a fanatic about my finish, I can attest that I have 'several' hairline cracks in my clearcoat which are primarily on the roof along the gutters.

I hate to say it but, I think it'd be more trouble than it's worth to have them deal with it.

I just don't believe in aftermarket paint jobs nearly as much as I do the factory paint due to the simple fact that it was 'factory'. I cannot see how a body shop can do as good of a job in 'baking the paint' and such as the factory could do... Just my opinion.

I'd leave it alone and watch it. If it becomes too bothersome, maybe you should take it in... they're probably just going to tell you that they need to repaint it... and when they say 'it', they mean the entire roof.

RP

 

Yeah, I'm not worried about how it looks since I'll be the only one who sees it on the roof three times a year when I wax it. The only thing I'm concerned about is rust. I think I'm just going to silicon it and see what happens.

 

my 02 expy gutters were cracking. took it to dealer and they said that it needs to be fixed (under warranty ofcourse). they said that 3m makes the sealer that ford uses that goes in the gutter where the roof panel meets the side panels. said they been having problems with the sealer not hardining before its painted which causes it to crack. dealer had to sand and scrap all sealer out of gutters then apply new sealer which did not hardin. so dealer had to scrap it out and use a new tube with different lot number. well it finally hardin so they could paint the roof again. took about a week and a half.

 

my 03' F-350 has cracks on the left bottom and right bottom of the rear window.

I agree that I dont really like the idea of having it painted.