2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Cancer

[Makensmoke]

This is getting pretty bad... always stored inside and taken good care of. Good ol Minnesota winters

 

[SRath]

Yeah, Its that dreaded pinch-seam area... . My driver's door looks similar to your's; my passenger door is very nice still. I have no idea why...



So I have been implementing the following plan for the past week or so:



I used self-healing wax-type penetrating rustproofing in my passenger door and inside panels to help it all stay nice. I already had my rear interior panels out for some wiring upgrades, so access was easy. I found a decent replacement driver's door with just some little dings like hail dents that should fill and repair easily. Dents don't bother me; rust does. I'll let the current rusty door continue to take the abuse until I'm ready for the complete paint job I need/want. It's good experiment material...



Having looked for specific causes, I have decided the worst culprit is the front BFG Mud Terrain tires throwing all the salt spray, mud, rocks, and other crap up into that door jamb and sill area. My newly-installed Bushwacker flares and full-length running boards instead of the nerf bars will stop that.



You need to also check your pinch seams on the bottom of your rocker panels. My x-cab has 3 drain slots that show signs of sand/salt/rust. I tried some rust-killer spray after I removed the rubber access plugs and thoroughly washed and blew the rocker panels out with compressed air until dry. The same rustproofing was then sprayed in until it ran out of the drain holes.



Like the door jambs, the front tires really throw stuff at those rockers. I have gathered some tagboard and plan to start cutting patterns to fit from flush against the insides of the running boards to the frame. Those will shield the bottoms of the rockers as well as the floor pans. I will then use those patterns to cut some heavy, black plastic, semi mud flaps to fit in all the way along the outside of my frame rails to serve as underbody shields. I'll know by spring how much this all helps.



I have also been applying generous coats of some Marhyde "Paintable Rubberized Undercoating" to my underside sheet metal. That stuff is way tougher than the undercoating I paid Ziebart for and adheres well to what is left of the Ziebart stuff. Wear a face shield and old clothes and latex gloves with long sleeves when applying that stuff; it is really mean about sticking to skin, hair, clothes, etc! It should also be sprayed outdoors since the fumes will give you a helluva a nasty buzz.



From previous experience with the Marhyde, don't paint it. Just leave it black. The paint won't flex as well as the Marhyde and will eventually start to flake and peel off and make touch-ups much harder.



I have several cans still in my cabinet, and I only hope I can still buy more somewhere. It just has to be high on some EPA nazi's hit list since it works so well. It comes close to being as tough as bedliner. You definitely don't want to find yourself needing to remove it!



I would like to locate and try a cathodic rust prevention system like that used on buried pipelines. Years ago, JCWhitney used to advertise a similar system for 12 volt vehicles in their catalog. I'll try anything to keep the dodge from falling off the comparitively immortal Cummins for as long as possible and I'll take all the help I can get!



One last thing I learned about parking vehicles inside during our Midwest winters (and even summers): Install a ceiling fan or buy a large regular fan and keep it running on low when the vehicle is parked. The moving air does wonders for my wife's '95 (and still absolutely rust-free) Blazer. It will dry a vehicle surprisingly well even in an unheated garage. Since I have a separate shop, she insists on having one stall of the attached 2 1/2 car garage "No matter what!" :-{}. My side is filled with shop-overflow and motorcycles, of course, so my truck never gets to sit inside...



Good luck with the rust. I would call that door a goner, though. Even a new skin would still have a rusty shell under it. I'd try to find a good used one.

 

[Makensmoke]

I have searched high and low for a used door and came up vertually empty handed. Seems they all have rust, which in a small case can be repaired... I think i'd rather pay a little more and just have a new one. I have had 305 70 16 tires on the truck for the last 5 or so years, the mud flaps don't do much good, i'm sure that hasn't helped the matter.

 

[abranz]

It's a crime our state is now using salt instead of sand/gravel. Everyone on this site worries about how to improve their trucks for power/reliablility/endurance. Well it's all for not if you live the northern states which use salt. Truthfully, we should band together and work on changing this practice of corrosive chemicals/salts used in the winter. They are not good for vehicles, roads, bridges, nearby vegetation, water systems/well, and the environment.

Anthony in Idaho

 

[SRath]

"I have searched high and low for a used door and came up vertually empty handed. Seems they all have rust, which in a small case can be repaired... I think i'd rather pay a little more and just have a new one. I have had 305 70 16 tires on the truck for the last 5 or so years, the mud flaps don't do much good, i'm sure that hasn't helped the matter. "



By the time you figure in what I spent in time and fuel going to salvage yards within an 80 mile radius to check doors they assured me were "rust-free" over the phone, your plan of just buying new is a good one.



It really irks me when you specifically ask a seller to please examine that bottom pinch seam area VERY carefully so you don't waste time and fuel on one with rust, and they just plain lie... And all but one junkyard has done exactly that so far. Even then, they all want $350 for a used (rusty) door.

 

[wcoomes]

I've got it, too on both doors. You say it really can't be repaired and buy new doors. How much are new doors and where are they available?

 

[DMoon]

Get it repaired and then oil the S%$# out of everything. Seriously, I live in Buffalo and they know salt. I had the door skins replaced 2 years ago along with some other body work. I had the old timer who did the work oil the crap out of everything. After the body work and paint were done it sat in back of the shop for nearly a week while the oil soaked in and oiled his parking lot.

Since then I've used a product from Castle called THRUST. It's a penetrating oil and I spay it everywhere I can get into. Just last week I pulled the taillights out and spayed into the upper wheel wells, in the drain holes of the doors, inside the fender wells, everywhere I can get the nozzel in I spay. I use a couple can's a year but it's cheap compared to the alternative.

I have to admit my truck doesn't look as clean as it could but I have found that the formerly rusty areas are now consistantly oily and rust free; I'll deal with the dirt in exchange for not having the rust.

 

[Joe Mc]

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/de/0061.asp



When the time comes (drivers door also pass fine???) here's my plan . . .

 

[Alphacowboy]

Good ol' Minnesota salt for ya! Sucks dont it? Check your pinch weld on the bottom of your tailgate... It will look just like the doors. All 4 of my doors (yup the quad doors too) are rusting out on the bottom thanks to a very poor design that doesnt let the water drain correctly out of the door. I am still wondering what to do. Belzers Dodge in Lakeville said they can fix them with a new bottom skin that also has something different about it to eliminate the cause of this in the future... but the body shop wants 300 a door...

 

[redram3]

Sad but looks like new doors and a move back to sun belt are only answer.

Bummer

_______ John

 

[SRath]

Get John DeLorean out of the slammer and put him to work designing stainless steel bodies for our trucks! Gull-wing doors, anyone?

 

[wcoomes]

John died a few years ago and I think he avoided the slammer.

 

[Graphic man]

i have the same rust issues..... i think i am going to new doors and parking it for the winter and get something else to drive..... Toronto Canada winters are also hard on metal.





Scott

 

[SRath]

"John died a few years ago and I think he avoided the slammer. "



I'm not sure which of those facts bothers me the most...

 

[JCyrbok]

yep mine look the same, always garage kept, cleaned regularly and Zibarted since day one. Michigan winters are killer. They use so much salt that I think that the bass and other fish are starting to evolve into salt water fish! LOL



J-

 

[Woodenhead]

i have the same rust issues..... i think i am going to new doors and parking it for the winter and get something else to drive..... Toronto Canada winters are also hard on metal.





Scott

Best thing I ever did for my truck was move out of the GTA and out here to the desert . However, my truck is finally now starting to show some signs of what got started in Ontario. A little bit of blistering around a rear wheel well and now rust showing in the door bottoms. Looks a million times better than my buddies '95 that still lives back home though.



I think I'm going to have a body shop clean off the bottom 6-8" of my truck all around then spray rocker guard or bed liner on the inside and out. I'm more concerned with how it works than how it looks.



Mike

 

[SRath]

In case anyone is interested, I did find a couple of electronic rust control devices. I'm going to bite the bullet and try one of them. They're cheaper than the rustproofing companies... and can't be any worse. I do know for a fact that similar systems work on pipelines.



CORROSION GUARD Heavy Duty Rust Prevention, North Queensland, Australia



CounterAct Electronic Rust Protection System - Corrosion Control



Edit: Here they are on ebay, and the one is more like 3 times as much...



Electronic Rust Protection "Corrosion Guard" - (eBay item 160160061666 end time Sep-25-07 16:13:33 PDT)



eBay Motors: Couplertec Electronic Rust Protection for 4WD SUV (item 230173329853 end time Sep-26-07 03:49:36 PDT)