Like usual the fenders on my 97 have started bubbling up and rusting. I was planning on gettin it fixed at the local bodyshop, or cutting it out and puttin on fender flares. But I have heard from a couple people that even if i have it repaired, it will keep rusting and wont last too long. Is this true? Is there any way to completely restore my bed to its original rust free condition for another five or ten years?

 

Depending on the rest of the box I'd just cut out the fenders and replace them. Thats what my brother did to his old F150 a few years back. It was fairly cheap.

Only problem is that the rest of the truck has cancer now pretty bad, but the box still looks wonderful.

 

Unfortunately there's no real cure for the cancer, all you can do is cut out and replace..

 

So True...

I wonder if you had a freshly repaired box or panel that had no rust on the inside if you could coat it with something like spray on bed liner? Something to keep the moisture out.

It sounds good in theory if there no moisture/rust already there.

 

If you remove the tail light and drill a fairly good size hole ther you will be able to pressure wash in there and you can spray some kind of protectant from there also.

 

Keep it clean & spray a light weight oil in there ...

Helps alot...

 

Yeah, but won't the oil eventually collect dust... with will collect moisture?

 

Have you ever seen water stick to oil?...

Dust won't cause as much rust as water ,or salt ..Hard to get oily metal to rust ,,if it gets dusty ,,oil it again,,

If its already rusty , oil will slow it down...

I rinse all the rust prone areas every time I wash a vehicle ..

oil will seep better than water ,less surface tension..

Basically, the day they build a vehicle ,is when it starts rusting,,

Where you live is the the deciding factor on how fast it rusts, along with how clean you keep it...

I have a 12 year old explorer ,,the only place it has rust (had) now gone ,,was where I couldn't oil it & couldn't wash it ,,behind the running board at the rear of the rockers..

From now on ,,I'll remove them once a year & clean & grease behind them ...

Plenty of dust in the doors ,,,no rust at all.....

 

Action, you got my vote on this. I'll have to give a try to my stroker this weekend.

Could I just use an oily rag on the undercarriage?

 

If you are serious about restoring the bed / fenders then pull the entire bed off the truck, not that hard, just have a few friends there to help. Prop it against a tree or house and get to cleaning and find out what you have.

 

An old spray gun works well on the under carriage .

Get it clean first ..

.Be prepared for some run off,,