In my current odyssey to find me an F-150, I came across a 95. reg cab, long bed, 4.9L I6 EFI, auto trans (no idea which one, forgot to look on the tag), 4WD, 3.55 reg rear end. Only has 92K on it, but boy, the rust at the lower rear portion of the front fenders and rear wheel wells has really started. Up front, one side is basically through I think and one of the rear wheel wells is nearly through as well. I'm going back out to look at it again. The cab corners hav rust, but oddly enough, not too bad - you can feel it but with out getting under it, you can't see it there. Rocker boards aren't too bad - surface only really. From a distance, the truck looks great - overall, paint is in great shape. Has always has a cap, bed is ok for the most part.

So, I have come to realize these are common places for rust - question is how fast will it progress? In the next year or two, and I've been planning this for a while, I want to learn to weld and so maybe I could try my hand at body work on this truck - I just would like some idea if I'll have anything to work with if it has to wait a year or two.

May as well ask this too - fair price or not. Mechanically it's sound. The rear fuel tank leaks so they haven't used it, fuel guage quit too - both tanks. Other than that and the rust, not much to complain about - A/c, heat, accessories, all working ok. Had the oil pan replaced 1-2 yrs ago. Asking $2750 - thought I might offer $2000. Reasonable? What else should I be absolutely sure to check out? Thanks a ton guys, Kevin

 

Rust spreads pretty quickly. You will be able to fix it in a year or two, but the problem will be worse. As long as you can find patch panels, it shouldn't be a big deal.

I would pass on that truck, you should be able to find something much nicer.

 

That's what I thought too - thing is, $2000 is really my limit. I'd prefer 4WD being in a snow belt with hilly terrain too. I can deal with some mechanical needs pretty easily - pulling a fule tank, brakes, the like - don't want to get into pulling a trans if I can help it - not real garage to work in. I've seen a few go on Ebay and listed in autotrader for way more - talking $4000-$6000 with similar package and less rust. I have yet to get under it with a light to get a cood look at the chassis, but as far as I can tell, the rust I mentioned is pretty localized. Any other opinions on what I might be able to get for $2000? This thing has a clean interior, cap, not any little "oh, by the way....." problems that I can tell - yet. Hey, I'll hold out cause I do want to stretch my dollar as far as I can - just need to know more what to expect.

 

If its in the salt belt and rust has gooten to the fenders then you can bet its been at work a while on the undercarriage unless its had undercoating or rustproofing. Be sure to check the springs & shackles, e-brake cables, gas tanks & straps
Two grand for 95 4x4 is a good deal for what is probably normal condition for a NY truck.

I'm in Syracuse :-) and my 94 has it around the rear wheel wells and the bottom corners of the supercab. Fwiw.

Tim

 

For your 2,000.00 it really doesn't sound like such a bad purchase. I assume that you have driven it? Did it drive OK? Nothing jump out and slap you in the face mechanically? If you like the truck then buy it. If you can live with the rust for a while then do so. Changing out the rear wheel wells is really not such a hard job - just labor intensive when it comes to actual body work and prepping for paint. I just finished the wheel wells on my 91 F150 - you can see pics in my gallery - and I have just laid on a cheapo top coat to get me through the winter. I will post pics with the cheapo spray can top coat in a week or so after I've had a chance to let it cure and then do a little blending work. My "body guy" won't be available to help me shoot a proper top coat until the spring as he is "indisposed" for a few months. The thing that you have to bear in mind with rust is that it really is a lot like a cancer. Really hard to cure and is always lurking somewhere once it gets a hold. FWIW I paid quite a bit for my F150 2WD that is 4 years older than yours and I still believe that I got it for a fair price.

Cheers!

Mike

 

Rust repairs are probably my least favorite, however it can be done at home. I did and it took a few months because my wife and I have a newborn and I had at least 1017 interruptions each day.

Anyway, here is the bed repair...

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350-bedrepair.html

And the frame repair...

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350-framerepair.html

My front fenders were rusty also, but I found a new, import made pair for $55 each plus shipping on e-bay, so I decided for that price I'll just save the time and just paint them and slap 'em on. Turned out, they didnt fit quite right so the nose of my truck looks slightly off... but I'm not worried about it. but I should have repaired my old ones (which I saved, I may revist this in a year or so).

I welded my patch panels on, but you can glue them as well.

Be warned, the links I gave you are on my personal web server, and there are a ton of pictures and descriptions, might take a while to load. Good luck.

 

And here's another link of body work I've done on my truck... forgot to include it earlier, sorry.

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350-bodyrepair.html

 

Gosh guys - thanks for all the info! I am willing to learn basic body work too - I have a pretty good handle on mechanical stuff and body work would just be a new thing. I figured that because there are SO many F-150s on the road that replacement fenders/sheetmetal would be available. And, in the summer I'll probably drive a different car so if the sheet metal work on the truck took a while, it would be ok for it to sit. I would just prefer 4WD in the winter - so much more reliable with regards to getting through what might get thrown at us. Going to drive it tomorrow and at that time I will get under it with a flash light and have a good look around. That is why I wondered if there any areas to pay specific attention to. You know, sometimes, you start looking around and think you've had a good look, then you get home and find out there was something you should have looked at and either didn't or can't remember what you saw.........

 

If you are willing to take the time to do it, by all means, go for it. I love it when people are willing to learn and figure things out such as rust repair. Thats the best way to learn. Do you have any pics of it?

 

I thought of that - I will try to get some tomorrow when I go to look at it. I can tell the guy it is to show a body guy just to get some idea of cost to repair - that wouldn't be totally untrue either. So, do check tomorrow afternoon or evening, should have gotten some pics to post. By the way, haven't posted pics here before - I'll just shoot them 640x480, any other limitations?

 

Did you check the floor boards for rust. I bought my 93 in 2002 and it had just come out of some body shop with new paint tu-tone black and grey looked beautiful. after about 6 months there were rust bubbles all over the rear fender wells, both gas doors, bottoms of both doors, bottoms of fenders, rocker panels and bottom of the box. i let it go for a year or so then i tore into it and when i pulled out the rubber mat inside the cab there was cancer over the entre floor with a big ol hole right under the gas pedal where your heel usually sits. Good from far but far from good!!!

 

LOL
Man, that sucks. I wonder if it was an honest attempt at fixing rust areas with a bad paint job or an honest attempt to cover the problems up.......

Thanks for the insight though - do you think some of that, especially at the floorboards, could be seen from underneath? I doubt the guy will let me pull up the carpet..... So, not only will I take a flash light, I'll take a screwdriver to poke around with.....

I did some checking on costs for fuel pumps and tanks. New, the stuff soen not seem cheap - around $100 for the rear tank and if needed, more like $140 for EACH sending unit. I thought I read around here that the sending units were substantialy less than that??? If so, gives me more barganing room. As it stands, the rear tank supposedly leaks, therefore hasn't been used in a while. Perhaps the sending unit back there still works, just needs a tank. And, as it stands, supposedly the fuel guage doesn't work, probably relating to the front tank. If the float has a hole and sinks, I'll probably put in a new unit rather than fix the float, although I do have a soldering iron..... Is there a simple way to test if a sending unit still works, pertaining to the rear one?

Oh, hey, one other question. I will find out for sure tomorrow - but, how likely is it that this thing has an E4OD??

 

get a good light and get under that truck and look at rear springs, rear shackles, rear spring mounts, radius rod brackets and everything else under that truck.

 

You're welcome. Body work of this type isn't difficult, just time consuming to do it right the first time. While not my favorite thing to do, to repair the rust on the wheel wells of the bed, I had four or five body shops tell me to "go away" and one shop quote me $2500, including painting the outside of the bed. For $2500 I could screw it up about 20 times and practice body work, so don't worry about it and give it a good try. The worse case scenario is you replace the bed with a non-rusty junkyard bed, and replace the fenders.

What makes body work "art" is the amount of sanding of the weld beads, filler, and overall sculpting of the repair. Most people with some practice can do a nice job, and there are a few who can do amazing work, whereas you can knock on the panel with your knuckle and not hear, or feel, the repair. But, that costs money.

Being cheap, I was happy to do yet again, more body work as you can see from the three links I posted earlier. I spent about 5 weeks on and off working on it, and now there is no rust that I can find, except for the EGR tube (which is going to fall off any day now) and the tailpipe section from the rear axle back. That's it.

Is it a perfect job? Nope. Can you tell 10 feet away I did body work? Nope. Run your fingers on my truck and you can feel a few spots that aren't quite perfect.

But I dump 3000lbs of gravel in it at a time, and haul race cars around, and lumber from home depot. I believe it is "good enough".

This is actually my second "project" vehicle that's all one color, for a change. Usually vehicles I own have kind of a leopard print of different color primers


I am willing to learn basic body work too - I have a pretty good handle on mechanical stuff and body work would just be a new thing. I figured that because there are SO many F-150s on the road that replacement fenders/sheetmetal would be available. And, in the summer I'll probably drive a different car so if the sheet metal work on the truck took a while, it would be ok for it to sit. I would just prefer 4WD in the winter - so much more reliable with regards to getting through what might get thrown at us. Going to drive it tomorrow and at that time I will get under it with a flash light and have a good look around. That is why I wondered if there any areas to pay specific attention to. You know, sometimes, you start looking around and think you've had a good look, then you get home and find out there was something you should have looked at and either didn't or can't remember what you saw.........[/QUOTE]

 

As Frederick said - your welcome! I actually find doing the body work alot of fun. It acts as a mild therapy session for me where I can just lose myself in the moment of working on the truck with a single focus - sometimes I REALLY need to get away from "things" for a while. It took me a lot of weekends and evenings to get the work done on the wheel wells and I still have a long way to go on the rest of the body and frame stuff.

To answer your question about the tranny, check the door jamb on the drivers side for the MFG sticker and look under the "trans" area for the code. Post it back and we'll let you know what you have. I THINK that it would likely be the factory upgraded E4OD because it's sucessor didn't come on line until around 1996 or so. Anyway, check the code and then you'll be sure!

Good luck pokin' around with the screwdriver!

Mike