Something had to be wrong with that panel before you got it, even northern trucks can gotheir entire lives being driven in the rust belt and survive better than that...

But I agree, the salt is terrible and what it does to any truck.

I'm in Upstate NY. Fulton area/Oswego area. Now you want to see massive amounts of road salt? Come on up. My company van (2007 Sprinter) was white with black trim at the start of the day. Now? It's all a powdered mass of white salt. Can't even see the black trim, even that turned light gray.

We hit the local car washes as the temp allows. Sooner you can flush the crap out of the wheel wells, and under carriage? The longer things will last. That's what killed our last project car. The frame was eaten out from the inside with cakes of road salt. (poor design allowed the wheels to kick the crud up and into a crease just above the unibody where it meets the front frame section)

S-

Um, I drain and bring in the hose... I live in Massachusetts, it's doable.

Used to live in Milford, Mass..and worked in Marlboro and Natick. Yeah they blow through a lot of road salt up in that neck of the woods.

S-

the only solution is...............find the nearest por 15 swamp and go poroggin'

I've read on here before that Canadian trucks are built with more coating for protection of salty roads?

If salt does that to your truck, imagine what damage it could do to you with your salty fries.

My trucks are stored for the winter. I'm too paranoid to let it drive in winter. I have it parked over the garden with one of those breathable 3 or 4 ply Kimberley-Clark tarps. I would prefer storage inside, but am happy its parked and not throwing that snow /salt/sand over and around the chassis were washing would be difficult.

Alberta uses calcium instead of salt and sand. Dennis can you confirm this? I went to see my brother in Calgary in Dec. 2005 and the road were filled with a white powder. Artificial snow? No, calcium. Doesn't damage steel.

Tyl

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...photoid=175842
FREE TIRES!!

I find it hard to believe that 4 years would cause that much damage. I have seen these trucks after 20 something years that looked that bad, not 4. That is a shame.

Hehe, those tires were free! The rims were ok, the tires were bald. I just got sick of dragging them around with me everywhere, so I gave them away on craigslist (but I did save the trim rings). :-X22

I love the east coast but I will not even consider moving there cause of the salt. I love cali, we use a spray stuff and then volcanic rock.

Mine stays outside in the yard but it can't get salt on it sitting there. I did have to drive it 2 times in the salt this winter though. I hosed her off after that but didn't get the frame that good. I hate winter.

25 years ago it wasn't a big deal to have a little snow on the roads. Now everyone has a coniption fit if the roads not clear 2 minuets after it quits snowing. The contract our County Highway Dept has with the state for winter highway maintenance spells out how many hours after a snowfall till the roads must be bare. The salt brine is most usefull for preventing black ice and keeping hard pack snow from bonding to the pavement. It shure does suck as far as maintaning your vehicle. I park my 76 F150 and my 99 Mustang GT when the snow falls till spring. The only defence is wash-wash-wash.

The only way that I have found to keep an old truck from rusting here in PA is to have it undercoated by a good, independent sprayer. There is a guy here who has sprayed just about every truck that is still on the road in this area. I had my old toyota truck done by him (notoriously bad for the beds just rusting off of them) and I am going to have my 05 F150 done by him this summer. The stuff he sprays looks like thick grease and goes on 1/4"-3/8" thick and never dries. He also has you bring it back every 1-2 years for a "touch up" to fix any areas that have worn off or fallen loose. Works very well.

But my '79 still sits inside all winter. :-D

Yeah that's my recommendation now too. Get it sprayed with an oil based rust inhibitor. There's shops that do it.. around here's about $80 - $100 to get them to do it, or you can do it yourself. I use fluid film (http://www.eurekafluidfilm.com/) and a pneumatic gun to apply it.. just hose everything down with it. I even put it on the body and interior parts. It works very well.. just need to reapply every fall and maybe spring too.

The reason they use salt is because it is cheap and it works. The DOT doesn't care about your cars. It also eats roads which they have to rebuild. That's job security. Why do you think that the I35W bridge went down last August in Minneapolis, MN? It's because of salt. I've lived in Saint Paul all of my life and in the winter you either wash your car often or store it.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...o/Pict0038.jpg

That really only took 4 years on a "rust free" box? Just doesn't seem like that would be possible.