By comparison, my former 97 ranger (now given to a former employee and still on the road) has about 270k on the clock, had not been garaged in over 10 years and was way lower to the ground yet has no discernable rust issues other than the rear spring perches which were problematic anyway and fairly easy to address. The sheet metal is darn near perfect and the truck still has a nice shine to the paint. I think Ford has been cutting some corners since the 90s.

 

What major large business hasn't been? It's all about the mighty dollar and mighty shareholders.

My 96 F150 was pretty solid too.

But I've heard the salts and liquid deicers have gotten much more corrosive too.

 

If they still put the 7.3 in trucks I wouldn't be doing this either, but since I have one of the few 2003 7.3's I'm trying to keep her alive. This door took me 4 hours probably, start to finish.

 

I'm in the same boat. If I could find a newer V10, I wouldn't even be doing this. I really don't want payments, either, so dealing with this is my only choice. So far, I've got three bolts out. Nice pics on the bed being off. I don't feel that bad now, being that my truck is 10 years old.

 

I will no be able to afford a newer vehicle for a while so i will be trying to keep mine alive as well, also other than the bolts and the gas hose are there any wires that need to be unplugged to remove the bed?

 

Yea I'm hoping to pay down the truck as quickly as I can. I've always hoped I could keep a vehicle for 10 years (judging by my signature I have issues doing this ) and after 4 or 5 years when it's paid off continue making "payments" to a savings account so that when it comes time to buy again you have enough for such a huge downpayment on the next one that payments are minimal or the loan duration short. But most of us just waste that money somewhere else or buy things we couldn't afford with the truck payment like a larger house, etc.. Then when you need to buy again you're in the same boat you were before. Payments eating away at your money.

I wish I knew more about how they went after the bed bolts, but the picture gives a good idea. Good luck

 

I used a 7" angle grinder with a grinding disc and ground the heads off the bolts, then used a pneumatic chisel to free them from the bed without damaging the bed itself. I suppose you could put a drill bit straight down the torx star and try to drill it too...I had success with the grinding wheel though.

As a side note, the bed bolts are self-tapping, so you are only supposed to use them once. You can re-use them, but you're not supposed to, so there's no point in trying to remove them properly. Just cut them off and save yourself a day's worth of torx-snapping frustration. (the self tapping is also the reason they rust themselves in so tightly)

 

will covering up a chip stop the metal from rusting for one winter?...some kid hit my door this morning at school and chipped some paint off my door right after i got it repainted...

 

Yes, go get a rattle can that matches your color...you might need to prime.

 

I as well am and always will be a 7.3 owner. Have to take care of it until ford builds something decent again.

 

ok, i have paint that was left over from when i got the truck painted the guy did a poor job but he fixed all my rot and dents for a good price so im gonna get it painted again in the spring after i remove the rust under the truck, will just covering that with the left over paint be ok?

 

goodie, now you guys have me scared about my truck. I'm going to do some fenderwell inspecting tomorrow when I get off work.

btw, this paint/rust crap isn't just with our trucks. My 2008 Expedition has 22,xxx miles, never seen salt/snow and the damn thing can't seem to go without paint issues. My entire roof is rusting currently and it's been painted 6 times so far under warranty.

Food for thought. Newer Fords and paint quality is crap. I never had issues like this with my 80's and 90's Fords. They had paint issues...but luckily I never had them

 

Its all of ford, buick, dodge, chevy, etc. Look under any "not so American" vehicle and it is blatantly obvious they don't undercoat or even paint the underside of their vehicles. It is pathetic!

See my excursion I picked up from the south "no salt". The bottom of the body is near bare metal (just a thin useless layer of primer) and hte frame even though coated with some cheap crap still lets rust start anywhere it pleases. Bare steel exposed brake lines waiting to fail some day when you most need them. Just sad!




Now take a look at my 22 year old honda CRX. See how nice the ENTIRE undercarriage is coated with a nice thick tough coating. Also note that no brake or fuel lines are visible, that is because honda runs their (coated mind you) lines inside of the car to protect them from rust and road debris. Go back and forth between these pics and look for all the differences. Look at how all the bolts are coated on the honda and bare on the ford. Notice the ONLY thing rusty on the honda is the aftermarket pos exhaust. I see this stuff every day while working on a very wide range of different vehicles. This is why I like hondas in case you ever wondered, they pay attention to detail and strive to engineer the best vehicles around. Ford just wants to make money. You want a good indication of how vehicles hold up to everything from rust to break downs, look at resale value! That right there will tell you how a vehicle is.

 

It is quite sad how when they cut corners they somtimes cut the wrong ones. Personaly I hate that about the companies but at the same time they are great vehicles (minus the rust issues) and if you can coat them and fix whats already happened and prevent it from happening again then why not. I still think ford should do it for us however especially because they are so expensive new.

 

I think if I ever buy a brand new truck I would paint all those underside surfaces before driving it any distance after bringing it home. WIth used it's tough because your dealer with other peoples neglect.