Just wondering out there if any of you "01" owners have had any isues with rust on the underbody. I bought my "01" in "04" with 27,000 miles on it and looked pretty good, have taken care of it over the years but it has started to rust right behind the cab and in front of the rear bumper. Also underneath on the frame and rest of the body looks like h-ll. Have they made any changes on the later F-10 models to take care of this issue? I've owned Ford trucks all my life but I can't say it's going to stay that way.

 

I have an 01 Supercrew and the only problem I have seen with rust starting is the bottoms of the doors. I cleaned the up and painted them on the inside with por15 and they have been good so far.
Rich

 

cab corners, bed corners, leaf spring hangers, bottom of doors, and body mounts. the first places they rot. i got the first 4 =/

 

I live in the rust belt also and I see alot of the '97-'03 F150's with rust problems. I had a '97 and '01 and both had rust problems on the inside bottom of the door which I attributed to poor drains. Both of these trucks had rust develop there by the time they were 4yrs old. I see alot now with rust on the lower box sides below the fuel fill, cab corners, bottom of the tailgate, and on really neglected trucks the bottom of the cab.
Ford seemed to fix the door problem in late '03 when they started opening the bottom of the door edges up so water can drain better. I currently have an '05 and, knock on wood, haven't developed any rust there yet. But, I also got in the habit of anytime the truck sits in the rain or is washed I take a airgun and blow out the water that sits in the bottom of the door. The water will drain out from driving, but it takes 40-50 miles to do it and I usually wash the truck before garaging it. My wife has an '07 SCREW and the doors on her truck seem to drain water alot better than my '05 Scab.
I've looked at used '04+ trucks on the lots to see how they are holding up, and the areas that look like they could cause problems are the lip underneath the bottom of the cab( both of ours have slight surface rust here) and on the SCREW models there is a box support right in front of the rear wheels that catches debris and could be a problem if not kept clean. I saw one '04 SCREW that looked like it was really neglected and the inside of the rear fenders was really rusty and had been painted over with undercoating to try to hide it. The truck also had full running boards and suprising the lip underneath the cab was in really good shape, it had some surface rust, but not anything bad. Overall the truck was in really good shape for an 7yr old truck that has spent it's entire life in the rust belt. Another thing to watch for is on the models without wheel flares since the edges of the wheelwells will get chipped up from rocks and cause rust if not touched up.
The box sides on the '04+ have the same type of supports on the corners that the '97-'03 have, but the bottoms are opened up alittle bit more to allow for better drainage. The body supports will develop surface rust after a few years. The frames on both of our trucks is very clean, but I think the frame will rust too if the truck is really neglected.
When you live in the rust belt there is nothing you can really do, short of never driving the vehicle, to keep it from rusting. After 4-5 winters of salt you will develop some rust no matter how fussy you are about your vehicle. And the problem is common with all brands, I've seen '99 MY and newer trucks from all the manufactorers with rust problems, usually all of them in the same areas.