Rust. My E-350 only has 47k miles, but there are spots of rust appearing on the rear chrome bumper. Not sure how they got there. Perhaps it was a bad chrome job at the factory? I've never seen anything like it.

Also, there appears to be rust on the vertical hinge posts on my side clamshell doors.

And lastly, the round, dome-shaped heads of the window fasteners that are visible on the outside of the side and rear windows are being weather beaten and are leaving drip stains down the glass.

WTH? I've never had issues like this with previous E-series vans.

 

Your discoveries are pretty much standard fare in your climate---living in Ohio the same has happened here. You don't mention the year of your van but here's a little something to consider:

These days chrome bumpers are notorious cheap POS parts, most likely provided by an outside vendor to Ford. The only real way to slow the rust would be heavy coat of the hardest paste wax you can tolerate applying. Its important to treat the boundary where the chrome plating meets the bare or electro-plated metal of the bumper shell.

Not sure exactly what hinge part you're describing but if its the pin between the hinge halves that's also common in the later years. Some sort of light weight oil squirted into and around those pins helps keep them from internally rusting and causing stiff opening and closing of any door.

The bolt heads you see mounting the glass to the door shells are also notoriously cheaply finished leading to the rust. You can CAREFULLY clean then with an abrasive then paint with a decent grade of rust-resisting finish. Something intended for bare metal would be best, just be sure to follow the manufacturers directions.

Because you're working so close to the glass---which can easily scratch---being careful there is very important too. Protect the immediate surrounding area to avoid mishaps.

Personally I'd recommend POR-15 but for such a small job its impractical.

HTH

 

Rust has been an ongoing issue with these trucks back as far as I can remember, up here in the great salty north if you don't take some preemptive measures to combat it like annual Krown or Rustcheck applications you are pretty much guaranteed to lose the vehicle to corrosion before it wears out.

It seems the shape of the lower quarter panels where they curve under exposes those panels to everything that comes off the tires so the paint often gets sand blasted off and rust quickly follows, a small set of mudflaps goes a long way to reducing this.

The bolts holding the windows in the side and rear doors can be completely removed and the glass will not fall out, it seems the urethane seal glues them in to some extent, so you can remove those rusty things and refinish them off the vehicle. If taking them all out makes you nervous just do 3 at a time, and if you finish them in black they blend in and make the glass look a little more streamlined.