Ah, thank you very much, landyacht, for the gutter rust education.
What brand is your van? I've noticed that Dodge vans all seem to have a lot of gutter rust even without a fiber top. There seems to be some sort of design flaw there.
One thing that goes through my mind when van shopping is: Is it wasteful to cut up a perfectly nice van; should I get a less perfect one because I am shortening its life? I guess my ideal van if doing a transplant would have a big hole in the roof but be otherwise perfect ;).
Can you, any of you, tell from the pics whether the top has seams? The seller, the friend I took with me, and I were all a bit stumped. It has those LINES but we were not sure if they were just decorative.