Well, bottom line is salt will eat away any piece of metal it comes in contact with. If you want a truck that will stay in nice shape, don't drive it in winter and also keep out of the mudd. If unable to do that, then expect rust, plain and simple. Whether you undercoat it or not, salt will find the crevices and crackes and the truck will eventually rust out in no time. The other thing is, if you have to drive you truck in bad weather, wash it like the others have said and don't use automatic car washes. Those car washes don't do worth a damn and the best way is to get dirty and try to wash every place you can.

I would have to say, something was wrong with that bed to rust out like that in 4 years. I have seen many trucks that never get washed and don't have that much rust.

 

Yeah seems a bit too fast I drive my truck in the salt and usualy dont wash it that often and it is nowhere near that bad granted I dont drive it every day only on the weekends but still. If that bed was truly a solid bed it wouldnt be that bad.

 

Yup only 4 years, The first 2 years it was fine, The third year it developed tons of bubble loking stuff with rust stains starting coming out of it, and the fourth year all the bubble stuff broke away leaving the holes you see in the picture.

 

I live in the rust belt, here's the cheap thing I do to keep my vehicles from rusting. Coat the inside of all of your body panels with motor oil. New oil if you're bucks up, used oil if you're bucks down. You can fill a pump type oil can with oil & squirt it inside the doors, the bottom edges of the doors, inside the cab corners, inside the pocket holes in the bed, behind the fenders, everywhere you can. If you want to do it really right, use an undercoating gun & spray oil everywhere you can. The frame, bed floor, cab floor, rear of the fenders, everywhere. The oil seeps into every crevice & drives out the water. This really works. I've owned my 79 F150 Ranger Lariat 4wd for 22 years, it it was my daily driver for 120,000 miles. It has 195,000 on it now. It sat out in the weather year round, & was driven in the worst weather we had. And went off road in the mud more than once. It was retired from daily service a few years back & restored. The only rust hole was about the size of a dime in the passenger floor.

Yes, the oil seeping out everywhere is a little messy when you first do it, but it works, & its cheap. Scott

 

When my f100 is done it will be 9 years since it seen salt and it never will again. RIP for most northern trucks here in the UP

 

I kinda feel bad that after I complete my build, I will have a nice 77 F250 4x4 with an eventual D60Front and won't even see mudd, snow or salt. It will sit in my garage through the winters, rain, snow, sleet, hail, you name it. The only time it will be driven is on the nice and sunny days which Up here in MN, it will only be from May to mid October.

 

[. It will sit in my garage through the winters, rain, snow, sleet, hail, you name it. The only time it will be driven is on the nice and sunny days [/QUOTE]


Thats what mine does. I've also got a rubber exhaust hose and a hole to run it outside so I can run the engine.
We have mild winters here so it doesnt sit as much as yours.

 

Here's a rusty one!! I found this picture on a different website.

I hate salt, too! I don't drive my 73 or my 92 during the winter months, so they aren't exposed to the salt. The 2000 Ranger that I use as a daily driver gets washed and detailed once a week, and I spray the undercarriage and inner fender wells with silicone spray to help keep the salt from sticking to it. So far- no rust.

 

Holy smokes! It looks like someone's been taking bites out of that bed! Chomp chomp!

 

I lived in Phoenix, Az for a couple yrs. While down there I bought a '99 F250 Superduty. Nice new rust free truck. When I moved back to Iowa, the truck had around 100k miles. A few rock chips here and there, nothing major, but no rust, not even on the frame. With in 2 yrs of living in Iowa and driving the AZ truck in IA, all the little rock chips started to rust. I sold the truck this last fall, and the rear fender lips had major cancer starting, there was pin size spots on the hood, doors, and box of rust starting, and 2 1/2 yrs prior there wasn't any rust to be seen on the truck. The truck did get a bath when the weather permitted and waxed every spring and fall, but with no heated garage, kind of hit or miss in the winter to get a bath. So I can see how a southern truck can rust so fast. It may be rust free to begin with, but any little spot of bare metal from a bad paint job or a rock chip and it will go fast.

And the new HEATED garage is being put up as we speak. So next year, by babies will be clean all year long.

 

We've had so much snow here in WI that were running out of salt to put on the roads. They arent spreading it on county highways any more. Which is fine with me I love driving on snow covered roads

 

I thought My truck was rust free but I found on the left rear, 2 1/4" pieces of crushed granite had gotten between the inner fender and the bed side and wore a couple holes to allow water in. It wasnt much rust but it could have been if it was in salt.

 

Here's another rusty one. This is a photo of my friend's 1974 F100 up in northern Minnesota.

 

Sweet trucks, we should have a rusty truck photo contest.

 

Here are a couple more good ones that I found:


A big rust hole in the side of the bed, but amazingly the wheel-well doesn't look too bad.


I know that this is the wrong year of truck, but this pic was just too good to pass up!