Have truck manufacturers solved the body rust issue?

Snagglefoot

Snagglefoot

Joined
Dec 31, 2017
Messages
20,274
Location
SE British Columbia, Canada
The amount of body rust that has appeared on pickup trucks in the rust belt in past is disgraceful. I've noticed that several improvements have been achieved, including plastic inserts along the rear fender wells, and more recently plastic covers just behind the front fender well and the front corner of the box (seen on some new Chevy trucks. )

I'm wondering if there is a general consensus of when rear fender well rust has been defeated. Who here at Bitog has the oldest pickup in the rust belt that has zero rear fender rust (and no after market corrosion inhibitors applied). I imagine the answer also varies with the make. Ideas?

I know it was still bad 15 years ago in most trucks.
 
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11 Tundra. New Jersey. Rust free. 147k.
It is garaged but I know there are differing opinions on that regarding rust.
The truck has, also, been exposed to some salt water as my shore town floods regularly.
I have on a few occasions rinsed the undercarriage at the quarter (🤣) car wash
after obvious exposure.
Knocking on wood.
 
One of the most common places I've noticed trucks rusting is immediately above the rear wheel well. It seems there is a sort of shelf above the rear wheel (and just like on my Honda Accord) dirt and salt collects there, stays moist and sits right up against the body side sheet metal. So it's no surprise the body rusts right through right there.

I hose that area out and wipe with a cloth whenever I wash the Accord and (fingers crossed) still have no rust there after18 years. It's quite surprising how much dirt comes out.
 
Not based on the underside condition of used trucks on the dealer lots when I was recently in the market for my new driver in the household. The trucks will the fully boxed frames seemed horrible, there is a lot of rust belt scrap metal sitting on the used truck lots around here. I ended up buying a local truck that had spent its whole life here. They salt/brine the roads a few times a year, maybe half a dozen on average but it is sparse enough that you can wash it all off a few days later.
 
hemitom said:
And why would they !
planned obsolescence really surprised ford went all aluminum. The prior to aluminum body fords disintegrated around here along with the dodge and chevy trucks
Click to expand...

The frame is what will still get the all aluminum body trucks. Same old issues with boxed frame components carrying a lot of material.
 
I'm a pretty strong believer that's why Ford went with aluminum. The 99-16 Superduty trucks rust terribly along with the 04-14 F150s.

GM and RAM aren't far behind. The 2014 - 2018 GM trucks seem to be rusting terribly along with the 4th gen Dodge trucks.

A few months ago I went to look at some low mileage lease return Dodge "classic" trucks and I was baffled that they had rusty wheel wells and rocker panels. On a 3 year old truck . . . .
 
The 2014-2018 GMs are looking absolutely horrific here in Indiana as of late. Rockers are especially bad and over the rear wheel area is getting bad.

We don’t see much on the newer 4th gen Rams but they are starting to show. Nowhere near as bad as the 14-18 gms. The 09-12 Rams are pretty bad though.

I started coating the rockers and wheel well voids on my 5th gen Ram the first weekend I got it home. I inspect with a small boroscope and it looks great at 4 years/100k. It stays coated so well I do it every other year. Nothing on the frame other than the welds which is normal. If it starts to show I’ll start getting it hit with Krown.

Let’s not even get into the frame coatings on the GM.
 
ecotourist said:
Aluminum corrodes too, but not nearly as fast as steel.

Dissimilar metals in contact are a problem. The stainless steel trim took a lot of the sheet metal out on our '81 Celica.
Click to expand...
My mother bought an '82 Celica hatch new. The rear hatches on those Celicas all rusted to oblivion, not because of stainless trim, but because Toyota used aluminum hinges to hold a steel hatch. The coupe versions with regular trunk lids did not have this problem.
 
K-Man said:
My mother bought an '82 Celica hatch new. The rear hatches on those Celicas all rusted to oblivion, not because of stainless trim, but because Toyota used aluminum hinges to hold a steel hatch. The coupe versions with regular trunk lids did not have this problem.
Click to expand...
I had the 5 speed GT lift-back which had stainless steel trim around the wheel arches. The regular models didn't have that trim and didn't have the same problem with rust - in that location anyway.

It was a great car but it was getting rusty in not much more than a decade.
 
From what I see in the industry, get the annual treatment such as Krown that creeps throughout the year. My lead detailer and I are on the same page and he's seen 1,000s of trade in vehicles. We like getting the coating applied late summer on our vehicles.
If you have any undercarriage or cranny dirt buildup, clean it yourself before undercoating.
Also, if you have the typical spare tire setup for pickups, remove it before the under coating. 2 reasons, you can make sure it drops ok, and you ensure that area gets undercoated, its hit and miss otherwise, but mostly miss.
 
Some manufacturers are getting serious about the plastic liners inside the wheel wells. Here is a GMC with robust plastic liners.

0B96D8DA-6196-4CE4-9C66-525527E43312.webp
 
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Danno said:
From what I see in the industry, get the annual treatment such as Krown that creeps throughout the year. My lead detailer and I are on the same page and he's seen 1,000s of trade in vehicles. We like getting the coating applied late summer on our vehicles.
If you have any undercarriage or cranny dirt buildup, clean it yourself before undercoating.
Also, if you have the typical spare tire setup for pickups, remove it before the under coating. 2 reasons, you can make sure it drops ok, and you ensure that area gets undercoated, its hit and miss otherwise, but mostly miss.
Click to expand...
I agree. Just before we get our first winter storm I drop my Silverado spare and put it in the bed (I have a truck cap). In the event of a flat, I spend less time vulnerable to traffic while changing a tire. Come spring it goes back to where it belongs. It saves the steel rim from salt and minimizes my risk during the time of year that most crashes happen where I'm from.
 
Danno said:
From what I see in the industry, get the annual treatment such as Krown that creeps throughout the year. My lead detailer and I are on the same page and he's seen 1,000s of trade in vehicles. We like getting the coating applied late summer on our vehicles.
If you have any undercarriage or cranny dirt buildup, clean it yourself before undercoating.
Also, if you have the typical spare tire setup for pickups, remove it before the under coating. 2 reasons, you can make sure it drops ok, and you ensure that area gets undercoated, its hit and miss otherwise, but mostly miss.
Click to expand...
Plus that's a good opportunity to make sure the spare is inflated correctly. I've seen it too many times where someone gets a flat tire only to find out that the spare is almost flat too. In the mid 2000's Toyota put TPMS on the spare tire, but people complained because the TPMS light would come on even after they filled the tire, but they missed the spare tire. That only lasted about 5 years before Toyota removed the spare TPMS and I'm guessing that's due to customer complaints, that's back when Toyota still listened to their customers.
 
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