Anyone had any of these that have rust along the top of the pinchweld starting from the inside/ out? Had a customer call with this problem. He has seen alot of these lately. Again it starts on the inside of the van. If you have come across this how did you fix it? Thanks!!!

Body shop... I have seen it before, but it was in a vehicle we were removing the glass so they could do something with the front clip, they fixed it no idea what causes it.. They are bad enuff to work on to start with.

Have seen DOZENS of these. Most common are the late 90's early 00's model. Just looked at one on Friday. I would say that about 8 out of every 10 we look at clearly have holes thru the pinchweld. We have seen MANY that the rust on the pinchweld is separating the metal so bad that this is the cause of the windshield breaking. As per SIKA, this must be repaired at a body shop. Problem being that there is no way to PROPERLY repair it without cutting out large amounts of metal to get inside the roof skin to fix. MAJOR $$$$!!When we have one scheduled, we first inspect for signs of rust. If it is there, we give the customer the option of us pulling it at their scheduled appt time with us or taking it to the body shop for us to pull there. If the rust is within SIKA guidelines, we repair it per SIKA and install. If not, call a tow truck and haul it off to a body shop. Most of the time the customer agrees to just take it to the body shop where we go to pull the glass and let them fix it. I will say that about 50% of the time the customer takes the vehicle to a competitor (no names mentioned!!!) where they pull the glass, shoot a bead and within 30 minutes have the customer on their way. (they think it is a good excuse to not use primer since "it is already rusting". Yes, it was said to me by one of those "experienced" techs)
As far as a cause, the best we tell it is caused by the body seam above the sliding cargo. Because of the angle of the front end of the vehicle, all of the water from the body seam runs forward leaving it sitting at the w/s pinchweld to rot to nothing. The rust already has YEARS of rotting before any water enters the passenger compartment and this is why most of the time there are holes.
If anyone has more details on the cause, would appreciate further info.

SYD, well you use a good urethane provider. I would let the customer battle this with there insuance and not get involved, as its always just too much work..

yep also seen lots of these!!! I usually see start even on new vans right in the top cornors where the top pinch over laps with the side. On new ones you can see the rust start right at the seam there.

Thanks guys I knew I could count on you.

Saw another one today. Customer was in for a quarter glass replacement. As always, I just check it to see if anything there. No severe rust, just small signs of rust colored water making its way thru the sheets of metal. Encouraged the customer to get it to the dealer/body shop to find the leak and get it fixed before it gets out of control. Forgot to mention that I have seen this on vehicles WITHOUT roof racks which pretty much eliminates that as the main culprit.

Syd, where are you from?