Dad owns a 06 F-150, when I was getting out of it I noticed something about the lip at the bottom of the door that caused me to wonder. It seems that the lips of the bottom of the f-150's doors aren't made to last, imo. I posted this hear cuz many of you own the new style of f-150's and could enlighten me if I'm wrong. On my 99 the metal from the door is bent around and pressed firmly on the inside of the door, thereby not letting water or dirt to linger. In the new styles tho, theres a large "trough" that goes from the front of the door to the end. From what I'm noticing is that dirt lies in this "trough" until you manually flush it out with the hose. Maybe I'm wrong about this but I know what happens when water and dirt are allowed to dog leg, I can see a lot of rust problems for ppl who don't continually flush it out. I HAD to post this cuz maybe no one noticed it b4 and all ford has to do is to press or seal up the bottom of the door better. Just my 2 cents tho, any thoughts???

 

Ya know, I am right there with you on this. I noticed this too. This is definetly a place for rust to live. Not very a very smart move in the Engineering dept.

 

Yep...

I don't like that at all...

Looks like I've got something else to check when I clean my truck. If the door seal holds up in this area, hopefully no water will collect in the trough. If the seal fails, water could easily get in there.

 

even with the door molding you will still get water inside the door when washing the truck or driving in the rain, the water seeps in through the seals aroung the side windows. Also I noticed on mine that the water will not drain out on its own, I washed my truck one time and checked it after four days and a few miles of driving and there was still alot of water in the bottom of the doors. I agree with you that it's a potential rust problem,but I think the open trough design is better than the closed design that the previous style had. On the open design you can take compressed air and blow the water out, I do that on mine every time I wash it or if I drive in alot of rain, it take some extra time to get all the water out but if it keeps it from rusting it'll be worth it. On the closed design there is no way to get the water out; I had a '97 and an '01 and both of them had rust starting on the bottom of the doors by the time they had 60,000 miles on them, and both trucks were always kept clean, especially in the winter when the roads are salty, I know its a big problem with the '97-'03 styles because I looked at alot of used ones before I bought my '05, and 90% of the trucks had rust starting on the doors, some of the trucks had less than 25,000 miles on them. I hope Ford solved the problem with the new design because nothing is worse than having a nice looking truck on the outside only to open the door and see rust on it. I hate to say it but I think Ford is slipping in the rust prevention department, my girlfriend has an '03 Chevy with 55,000 miles and it doesn't have one spect of rust anywhere.

 

none of my f150 had any rust on them. i've had a couple of mustangs to get a spot here or there. my 97 looked just about as good as the day i brought her home. i will be alittle upset if this one rust.

 

Mine has the trough also. I thought that they hadn't used the seam sealer all the way around the door. Glad to hear that it just isn't my truck. To prevent rust at the bottom of the door I spray some oil on the seam. It doesn't look good but neither does the unfinished looking door seam.