To the folks with wheel well rust.

[NSperduto]

After hearing from two people I know that they had wheel well rust on their 3rd gen dodges in the rear wheels. I thought I'd ask here. The people here who had wheel wells rust, are you running the plastic wheel well liners or just a stock bed. I know when I bought my truck I had to go back to dodge and buy wheel well liners. I just took my flares off to take a look at the truck and at 140k, the wheel wells look fine.

The tailgate not so much though... .



Nick

 

[Wayne M.]

Im running liners, and I see bubbling at the wheel lips. about 12-1 O'clock. The tailgate looks ok. I will look closer though.

Nick, I see your location. I wonder if us driving around in our area has anything to do with it. In NYC and the NJTP/ GSP- liquid calcium chloride is used heavily.

That stuff is B A D

Until mid 2008 I was taking my truck into Manhattan and the NJTP daily.

 

[JR]

Id have to agree its more to do with location than anything. For us folks in the rustbelt, a. k. a. north eastern ohio, rusted fenders is far more common than painted ones. We too use calcium chloride on the roads, couple that with high humidity year round and its a sure fired formula for sheet metal mayhem. Travel south a few hundred miles where they get a fraction of the snow we get up here, the scenery gets much better.

 

[rbattelle]

I have the plastic liners, and so far my wheel wells are good. Got some rust starting on the tailgate in the usual spot.

I don't drive the truck much in the winter anymore, and I think that's slowed the decay.

-Ryan

 

[jgillott]

No liners and no rust on ours so far. However, they were done at Ziebart when new. The painted black bumper on the '04. 5 is another story. It's ready to fall off due to the salt spreader.

 

[BLoging]

my driver side is full of little rust bubbles from 10 to the 2 o'clock area and on the passenger side the hole lip of the wheel well but none the the fender, that fender is newer after it was fixed from deer damage on that side of the box (that was all fixed before i got the truck).

i am trying to slow the rust down with some rust converter but you need to get the old paint off the rust to get the rust dry before putting on the rust converter, it help's a lot!!! the rust on the passenger side has not crept up the side of the fender. The only bad thing about the rust converter is it turn's the rust black and the converter spray's on black!!! and my truck is gray!

 

[JerryNelson]

I have rust on mine. Its coming from the inside out. look up under side of the wheel well
there are 3 square sections at 10 12 and 2 there are holes in the 10 and 2 but not the 12.
drill it out and let the dirt out. I did mine and a lot of dirt came out.

 

[Wayne M.]

I have rust on mine. Its coming from the inside out. look up under side of the wheel well

there are 3 square sections at 10 12 and 2 there are holes in the 10 and 2 but not the 12.

drill it out and let the dirt out. I did mine and a lot of dirt came out.

Jerry, do you have liners?

 

[Wayne M.]

To the guys with the tailgate rust, Do you have caps or covers? I haven't looked very close yet, but I've had a cap since new and I see nothing obvious.

 

[DavidC]

Sorry guy's, no rust here in AZ. But I lived in Pa. for 18 years and can feel the pain of watching your ride decay.



Dave

 

[JerryNelson]

wayne no I do not have liners. but I do have a cap its on it most of the time. And I have rust on my tailgate. I do keep it washed and waxed, and I washed under side because i like it clean and i live in the salt zone.

 

[rbattelle]

To the guys with the tailgate rust, Do you have caps or covers? I haven't looked very close yet, but I've had a cap since new and I see nothing obvious.

I don't have a cap or cover, but I do have Line-X. The tailgate rust is on the bottom edge and is coming from the inside! There is actually rust under the Line-X which I had deliberately applied all the way to the bottom of the tailgate. What a shame. Should've coated the inside of the tailgate when new. (This isn't a Line-X problem, it's a Dodge sheet metal problem at the seam at the bottom of the tailgate. )



-Ryan

 

[JerryNelson]

yep same with mine rbattelle all the rust i have is from the inside out and dodge wont fix it to old and to many miles

 

[Wertles]

2006. Ziebarted before I picked it up. Resprayed every year. Weekly or more often car washes. Rust bubbles still at 12:00. Added OEM fender flares. No more visible rust bubbles.

 

[rbattelle]

It's funny, I grew up in upstate NY, where they salt the roads like enormous french fries all winter. After many years of careful observation, I eventually concluded that all the cars with Ziebart stickers had by far the worst rust problems.



Cars with no apparent rust treatments fared quite a bit better. But in my opinion, the cars that were the least rusty invariably had a "Auto Armor" sticker on them.



-Ryan

 

[JMetzger]

Rust was not a problem when I lived in NV but since moving to IN it is another story. They go nuts with spreading salt even before it snows. I had both the truck & car Ziebarted. Hope it helps.

 

[Wayne M.]

Update on the tailgate. I was unloading bagged stone today, and some strays got in the area between the gate and bed at the hinge point. Lo and behold- there's paint flaking along the pinch weld. On the inside. Open the gate and look down at the bottom where the metal is folded.