Here’s a problem for the Ford marketers: how to sell more new trucks when old ones tend to last so long and run for hundreds of thousands of miles. Well, what makes an owner abandon a perfectly good running truck and buy a new one? Answer: Rust! Lots of unsightly rust.

Here’s a problem for the Ford engineers: how to rust out a truck but not before the seven-year rust warrantee expires. Even in dry climates it rains sometimes. The trick is to capture that rainwater and retain it so it can provide a moist, rust-promoting environment for years even during the dry spells. Solution: and this is very clever: design hollow double steel wall fenders and sidewalls of the truck bed. Leave openings on both ends of the wheel wells for road water to enter. Insert sponges between those steel walls to absorb water, and make wheel well liners an expensive option unlikely to be added. The sponges will absorb and retain road water, wet sand, mud, dirt and gravel that are directed up under the wheel wells. We’ll call the sponges sound deadeners to disguise their function. The damp sponges will supply the needed moisture to slowly rust through layers of steel from the inside out to corrode all the way through to the outside surface, blister the primer, paint and clear coat and finally break the paint exposing an ugly rust after about seven years.

Okay, it’s sarcasm but it’s not unfeasible. The evidence certainly is there.

I just bought a 2007 F-150 with 6.5’ bed with the rust already well underway. I figured I could stop a little surface rust – just scrape, clean, prime and recoat. Nope. It’s not surface rust. It’s coming from inside. By the time it blisters the paint it is surprisingly, unbelievably bad.

Scraping off the blistered paint exposes the ugly truth. You can put your finger through the bad spots. Ford left a void between the walls where moisture can penetrate causing internal rust. I had the idea that I could open a hole into the hollow wall, spray rust reformer in there to coat the wall’s interior surfaces then fill that void with closed-cell expanding spray foam preventing water from ever entering again. While the truck sat in the hot sun on a 90 degree day to dry any water in there, I drilled a 3/8” hole through a rust spot on the exterior wall. Out poured rust flakes, sand and a small rock. So road dirt is definitely getting in there. Probing the hole further I hit foam! It’s a soft rubbery cloth-like foam that seems to be trapping moisture. So Ford already had the idea to foam the void. Ford’s foam prevented me from spraying in the rust converter. I removed as much of the foam as I could pull out of the hole, drilled several other holes and did the same and vacuumed as much debris as would come out. Then I hit the wheel wells with my heat gun and watched water bleed out right through pinholes in the steel. I let it rest and an hour later, more beads of water had formed bleeding out through tiny almost invisible micro cracks and pinholes cause by the interior rust finally perforating the surface steel. The truck is now in my dry garage protected from rain so no new water is getting in. Still after four days of sitting and heat gun treatments, beads of water still form. Of course heat and moisture accelerate rust but I wanted to dry out the moisture with heat. You can watch the rust progress overnight. In the morning you can see dark spots of fresh rust appear.


7/23/18 4:32 PM Moisture bleeds out through pin holes under the paint and corrodes steel in concentric rings. This is right above the left rear wheel well. The corroded area is smaller than a dime.



7/23/18 4:33 PM Knife breaks blister. The yellow area to the left is the expanding foam I sprayed in through a hole drilled into the rusted surface in a futile attempt to fill the void between the steel walls. Ford’s sound pads block my spray foam from going where I wanted it to go. Instead the foam finds its way upward where there is no sound padding and fills the wall of the truck bed



7/23/18 4:33 PM Behind these pin holes are layers of steel that have been rusting for years until corrosion finally penetrates the surface. The deeper layers are totally destroyed by rust so fixing the surface is like putting a Band-Aid over skin cancer



7/24/18 8:11 AM New rust appears in the morning after heating it the evening before. I then reapplied heat gun to front and behind by blasting heat up toward the rust spot from under the wheel well.



7/24/18 9:28 AM Water droplets form after heating. These would blister any paint that was covering the spot. This is evidence that there is significant moisture trapped between the steel walls probably retained by Ford’s sound-deadening pads.

Whereas this moisture will evaporate, a paint covering would trap the moisture allowing it to spread under the paint and continue its corrosive effect.

My plan is to keeping heating the panel until no more moisture comes out, fill it with as much foam as I can to block the openings into the hollow area. Since rust (iron oxide) cannot form in the absence of either moisture or oxygen the idea is to prevent water from entering. Then I’ll prime it or use rust converter. Then I’ll install bushwacker fender flares to cover the damage and wheel well liners to prevent splash. Then I expect it to slow down but not stop the rust because I don’t think I’ll ever defeat Ford’s marvel of engineering genius designed to retain water in that cavity for years.

Anyone with experience solving this problem?

 

your truck is 11 years old... You think this is a FORD problem ?..... I can remember in the 60s when the Jap junk was rusting when they drove them off the boat to get to the dealership !!

 

Yes, this is a Ford problem. He owns a Ford, not a 1960's "Jap Junk". And yes, I believe Ford and other makers design their vehicles to wear and rust out. No company want's their product to last too long. Just long enough is the new manufacturing moto.

This is not just cars and trucks either. Bought a new washer or refrigerator lately? They are fancy, but won't last. Used to be you bought a new refrigerator because you want a larger one, different color, ect., now 5 to 7 years is the life expectancy of one. Models from the 1930's to the 1990's are still going strong. Same with clothes washers. Microwaves are also the same. I have one from the late 80's that works perfectly, while my second one from the 2000's is getting weak.

Ford knows these trucks will rust, just the same as GM knows the insulation they put in the rocker panels of their trucks would make them rust. I used to do paint and body work in the 1970's, You knew where the rust was going to be on any paticular brand that came in. Same way today.

Between the electrical and rust, I wonder if there will be any "classic" vehicles from the 2000's in the future unless they are stored from new in a climate controlled area.