Ive noticed over the last couple of weeks, a squeek when I hit bumps, coming form the driver side. I just assumed it was shocks, and they needed replacing anyways, well when I replaced the shocks, I saw something I never expected from a 5 year old, modern truck. Yea this is my 2002 truck.

Front drivers side crossmember on the bed


Rear drivers side crossmember on the bed


Front passengers side crossemember on the bed


AND The front crossmember, between the frame rails



I can actually lift the bed of the truck, on the drivers side, about an inch. Its pretty scary for a 2002 if you ask me, sure it has 144k, but its only 5 years old, and i usually wash multiple times over the winter (they salt alot here in pa) and spray the under carraige. Youd never know the bed looked that bad from the outside, and under the cab isnt bad at all, just some minor surface rust.





I did some calling around today, and IF this one fella I talked to can find me a bed, im looking at 1600- 2100 I guess short beds are hard to come by.... I might be better off getting a reading truck body. I must have gotten some bad steel on my bed or something, because even our early 99 isnt this bad, its actually only got minor surface rust.........

 

damn, if you would not say its ford . my guess would be a scummins,
damn it thats bad

 

From seeing that it really scares me. My frame and cross members have a lot of surface rust on them. I think that I am going to have to do some sanding and painting this summer!

 

that must come from all the road salt "up there" . Man I love the south!!

 

my 99 isn't that bad and it came from wisconsin but first it was in minnasota

 

If it is not over 5 years from inservice date then the corrosion warranty from fomoco might help. might want to look it up.

 

Me too, 7 years - no rust, it is like new underside, belive me I watched it a lot when I was doing the slip yoke greasing operation, the babe has been in Texas all the time.
No snow, no salt, no rain, just hot dry weather. Something to be happy about here.

 

My old 84 chevy in 2000 wasnt even this bad, but it had a self oiling system, to prevent rustapart

 

Wow that looks bad. My 02 was from the rust belt and it looks NOTHING like that.

Maybe....... you and the woman in the back had stressed the mounts on the bed and cracked, within a few thousand miles the cracks rust out?

 

What about just getting some rectangular tubing and replacing the bed crossmembers with that? From the pictures it looks like the rest of the bed is in good shape. I'd go for pulling the bed off and just replacing the cross members and repainting them.

 

Conviently the pink slip is still in the glove box, if you can believe that 12/06/01. Missed it by 6 months.




Haha well that could be except two issues, 1 being that im alway single haha and 2 being that its stuffed full of tools, stock, stuff, things, etc!


Ive thought about this as well, and welding is not an issue from me, ive gotten decent at tig welding steel, however, i cannot for the life of me paint. I can screw up painting a 5"x5" piece of wood, trust me on this haha. Also in my experience, you only get one factory paint job, after that, you cannot expect much to last as far as a daily driver goes. Weve had some vehicles repainted, only to be dissatisfied less then two years later. The other issue is down time, this is my DD/ work truck, i work out of it, so to take it off, and weld up what needs done, wouldnt be more then a day, then to get it painted, takes who knows how long, then reassemble, rewire all my in bed stuff..... time is money.... I think ill drive it as is untill i find either a new bed, or go for the utility body. Reading makes some pretty nice stuff, looks like it could fill my needs....

 

My truck is a 99 and i live in Michigan, and my truck does not look like that either. My frame has some surface rust that needs to be attended too(looks like s@#t), but other than that, all the metal is still there and strong.

 

pull that bed off replace the x-members and rhino line or linex that puppy, then never worry 'bout it!

 

another bed would be cheepest and fastest way

 

I think you should still try and get some kind of help of Ford.. even though it is slightly over the time limit..After all the rust was certainly there 6 months ago.. right? Also, i would double check your oil pan.. read alot of posts about oil leakage from rusty pans.. Sure glad they don't use that much salt out here in Seattle..