I am starting to get some rust showing on the front fender and at the bottom of the doors. I am sure other's are having this problem. What have you done to try and prevent it from getting worse? I was thinking of trying some POR-15 on the inner fenders and bottom of the doors.

Just curious what others steps people have used.

 

I had the same problem as you. Both doors were replaced under warranty and I replaced the fenders on my dime. The fenders were replaced because of where the rust was ( between the outer and 1st inner fender). They would have had to be seperated and cleaned, then re welded. Much easier and cheaper just to replace with new metal.

 

Did you purchase your truck brand new? How did you get the warranty on the doors?

 

Anyone else? I don't have the cash to get this truck repainted at this time.

 

My Fenders, Doors, Rockers and Cab Corners are all fairly rusted away. Bottom side of my passenger door (if you open and look underneath) is basically a huge hole,lol.

However last spring I sanded down the rust best I could, taped off the areas and sprayed my truck with Truck Bed Liner. This worked and helped for awhile actually. But I did not sand away all of the rust so it slowly came back And now, other than replacing parts, there is nothing I can do.

So come spring time I'm getting new fenders, doors, cab corners and rockers and then going from there.

 

My aunt poured a quart of oil in her doors after having them replaced due to rust, and has never had rust since. A friend of hers tolder her the trick. I think she parked it downhill for a while. I live in TX so I don't have the problem, but she lives in MA.

 

Yes, I've owned the truck since delivered from the factory and purchased the dealer sprayed on undercoating with lifetime perferation protection. Glad I did now although it took 2.5 years of fighting with DC to replace doors. In the end all it took was a well worded letter from my lawyer talking about a lawsuit for them to cave.

 

Heres a few tricks that Ive learned with mine:
Theres two main rust treatment products out there, phosphoric acid / zinc and tannic acid. Ive tried both and so far I like the tannic acid stuff less. This is the stuff that sprays or brushes on and makes a black primer coat out of the rust. You can follow either one with the paint of your choice. Two good suppliers are eastwood co. and theruststore.com.
you can spray this stuff on rusty parts and are left with a coating that keeps more rust from forming until it gets under the surface coating. So coverage of the entire part is important. some parts are difficult to get access to so spraying them from the outside is easiest.
The rust on thedoor panels starts with moisture on the inside of the door at the seam where the shell meets the door skin. Good idea to scrape out that whole area where the seam is bent over the shell and spray in some rust treatment followed by a coat of paint with a small brush. Youll also want to get the seam inside the door. Take off the panel and spray rust treatment in there too. Give it a couple soaks if youre using the zinc stuff.
Yo can reach the fender arches via the bed stake holes and the holes where the turn signals and taillights live. You can get into the rocker panels via the body plugs under the truck. The cab corners are the worst though since you cant really get access in there without cutting a hole.
Id strongly recommend drilling several small drainage holes along the door seams and at the lowest edge of the rockers and cab corners. Larger holes on the bottom of the cab corners to allow you to reach inside with a straw. Dont forget to paint over the rough edges of the holes.
If you have rust through the doors or rockers theres only two ways to fix it. You can cut out the rust and weld in a piece of carefully shaped sheet metal and do the usual filler and paint or use fiberglass as a patch. Id recommend the sheetmetal approach. Use a good zinc etch primer as your first coat then a sealer / primer followed by color and clear.
You can buy new replacement rockers and lower door skins as well. These youll wand to weld in place.
Also a heads-up with rust under the cab. The front cab mounts are notorious for trapping sand which holds water on the metal and rots it out. Get in there with some compressed air and clean them out via the holes in the front hidden by the wheelhouses. If they are badly rotted youll need a welder to fabricate some new parts since I havent been able to find these anywhere.
Also keep an eye on the floor where the firewall slopes down into the floor of the cab and the area hidden by the support that lines up behind the seats.
A good idea to take the carpet off and have a look. Scrape the asphalt stuff off, it just hides the rust. If the floors are bad its easy to cut out and replace. Theres replacement parts out there, or you can make them from sheetmetal.

 

I showed the bottom of my doors to a painter and he said they were done as soon as I could see the rust. From what he told me, the bottom of the doors are not protected well at all. the fold over is a trap that holds water etc.

I plan to clean them up, patch as needed and have linex cover the entire rocker area and door bottoms on the truck. I hate rust. It is a real bummer.

 

You know that's kinda of what i am thinking. sanding down the area really good. And putting the POR-15 material on my truck.

Drilling a few small holes in the base of the door to let water drain. Then taping off the rocker panel area and putting line-x or roll on bed liner on the side to cover it.

 

I tried POR-15 and was NOT impressed. Regular rust paint works much better IMO. The POR just fell off in big flakes even after sandblasting the metal first and using the special prep solution they recommend. For the price they charge it should turn the rust into gold.

Others may have had different experiences but thats what I found.

 

You can try this for your doors http://www.cumminsdatabase.com/read.php?id=48

 

The doors on our trucks don't drain well at all. Rust on the bottoms is a well known and shared problem. I had the bottoms of both doors done last summer for $800. If I get another couple years out of them then great. We'll see. In the spring of 2006 when I had about 90k on my truck I had it in to my dealer for service and mentioned the rust on the doors. It wasn't rusted thru but was on it's way. The body guy came out and said "Nope, nothing we can do under warranty. Has to be a hole..." I said "That's got all the makings of a hole..." I should have sprayed on some salt water.

 

i just spray my tailgate seam,door seams and wheel well seams once a year with corrosion stop from home depot..$4.00.. for a can and lasted its 3 years now on same can...its waxy and adheres......worked for me and takes bout 5 minutes to do...

 

yup thats one way to do it, get in there and spray the rusty areas with paraffin spray. You can get the stuff in large quantities if you look around. The only downside is when you need to do work on the part it gets kind of messy.
Chain wax is the same stuff more or less, its a chain lube for motorcycles.