Roadmaster roofline issues

Well it seems that my wagon is far from through with throwing surprises at me. Just when I think I’ve found the serious issues, something new rears it’s head.

While I was attempting to sort out the roof leak in the seams of my roofline at the back hatch, I thought I would finally take a look at the rust bubbles that I’ve noticed along the rain gutters over the doors on the drivers side. I pulled off the rain gutter rubber and had a closer look. What I discovered was depressing to say the least. While the gutters had bubbled a fair amount, I had expected to be able to grind it down and repair it. It seems that’s not to be the case. After removing the paint and rust I discovered not only several holes in the roofline but the rust had spread out about 4 inches in either direction from the worst of it on the inside of the car.

Rust spots that are this far gone are completely out of place on this car. While there is some rust on some of the wheel wells, there’s nothing like this. I had no idea that I would discover corrosion to this extent.

I want dearly to go ahead and fix this but I don’t have the skills to proceed and I loathe the idea of paying what it would likely cost to have this professionally done. As it stands I can’t take the car outside if there’s any chance of rain if I want to keep the inner roofline from rusting out. As drastic is it was to have to rebuild the transmission, at least that was a repairable mechanical issue. This is a whole other story.