I've got a 2007 F150, had it since new. It is starting to show signs of age and upstate NY salt corrosion. I got a few quotes from local body shops, and it is in the neighborhood of $3500 to take care of all the rust issues, dings and dents from use. Of course none of them guarantee their work on rust, unless they replace the panels, but they all said that it would be a waste. They are all reputable body shops that repair local and state vehicles too.

Has anyone had this done? If so, assuming that the procedure the body shop did was the correct way to fix the issue, did the job hold up nearly as good as the factory paint job? Of course, not counting if body starts rusting in a different place.

Everyone that I have talked to said it is a good idea to get this done, especially since my truck is still under warranty, low mileage, and no mechanical issues. I go as far as pressure washing the frame and use about one gallon of Rustoleum to coat it each year since it was new.

 

Sorry I can't help with the question.

But any pics of the rust? I'm curious where yours is rusting. I have 0 rust anywhere on mine, I'm a year newer, but I have 108k miles and drive it all winter.

 

I'd be hesitant to stick that much money into paint on a vehicle that has been driven for so many years in a corrosive environment. While it will probably look good at first, after the first winter you could easily have more rust areas showing up and you would shortly be back to where you are right now. Now if you had a nice, rust-free, Southern truck it would be a different story, but having grown-up in Minnesota, my experience has been that once you starting getting rust bubbles to surface you are past the point of keeping the vehicle pristine if you intend to daily drive it.....

 

If you are asking if the paint will hold up, I am certain if it's applied per manufacturer's directions you will have many years of happiness. As far as relace vs. repairing rusted panels, it really depends on how thorough they are. What I mean is, when I repainted my 85 camaro I stripped the body down to bare metal and any where i found rust I either sanded it out or cut it out and repaired the panel. It's been 6 years and my paint is still pristine. If the shop is taking the paint all the way off, at least where there's rust coming through you shouldn't have problems for quite a while. Now bear in mind your environment and any new scratches or chips after it's painted will affect longevity
The cost doesn't seem unreasonable for the work described
That's my 2 cents anyway

 

3500 would make a nice down payment on a new truck

Or for 3500 you could hire a moving crew and get yourself out of the rust belt

 

How is your truck still under warranty?

 

 

Those are small areas. The wheel wheels would need new metal. Those rot from the inside on the top of the wheel well arch. You have to spray up from under the rear bumper to clean that area out. There's a little gap in there.

For the doors, blast that bottom seam with a high pressure hose all winter long. Spray some oil in them. Doing them has kept mine rust free.

For the front area, take off that bottom plastic piece that's held on by those two screws. You'll be surprised what you find behind there.

I don't think you have enough rust that you can't fix it yourself. Or if you have it professionally done, I don't think it would come right back if it was done right.

 

Above you can see the rust pictures. It is not too bad, but I can see in a couple years getting worse.

I have talked to many people, and gotten the same responses as you folks. Yes, $3,500 is a nice down payment on a new truck, but for me to replace what I got will set me back more than I can justify, especially since it is already under warranty (ESP by Ford), no foreseeable driveability problems, and low mileage.

If it was out of warranty and high mileage, trading it or selling it private party would be a no brainer. Or just run it into the ground.

Some told me not to worry about the bed, and once it gets too bad, either replace it with a used bed or do a flatbed conversion. Rather worry about the logistics of the cab and frame. Which kind of makes sense.

Who knows... I might just let it go... And play my cards and see what hand I am dealt with in a couple years.

 

I have tried my best, but salt is still getting to it.

Yeah, those plastic pieces are devils when it comes to hiding abrasive sand! They look nice when new, but years later they take a toll.

 

I hope you find a good way to get it fixed. I'm sorry to see the rust coming through.

We take care of our trucks similarly, so this isn't something I want to see pop up on mine.

Did it ever sit with salt on it in a garage? I know personally, I spent $120.00 at the manual carwash bay between Jan 1st and April 1st. (Gift card from my girlfriend).

Totally not rubbing in the fact that you have rust, just trying to figure out what's causing it for you so I can take extra steps if needed. What do they put down on the roads there?

I just went and checked mine and even though I have double the miles you do, I don't have anything starting. Door still has oil on it from winter that I need to clean off.

We have similar trucks, in similar rust belt states and take care of them similarly. I wonder if you had any defects in the paint to begin with?

How are your bed supports holding up?

 

You asked for opinions, so I’m going to offer mine. I will note that I supervised the Paint Shop for a major manufacturing operation as one of my past jobs. So my opinions will be based on cold, hard facts as opposed to somebody’s personal experience.

First, the bad news. Basically, once rust starts on your vehicle, it’s very, very hard to stop it. Why? Two reasons. First, it’s very, very hard to remove all of the rust. You’ll never get all of it off by simple sanding. You’ll get more – but not all of it – off by media blasting. Even dipping the entire body in various chemical baths will not get to the rust that’s invariably in between the panels and seams. And any rust that you don’t remove will come back to bite you in short order. Make sense?

Second, most of your corrosion protection is achieved from coatings that come both from the steel mill on coils of steel and the electrodeposition primer applied by the vehicle manufacturer. Together, these coatings (and the pre-coating steps that clean and prepare the metal for the coatings) are impossible to replicate in any body shop. (The electrodeposition primer tank we used had five separate cleaning and pre-primer steps just to insure that the e-coat itself had a good base to stick to.) And once you sand, blast, chemically strip or otherwise remove this primer, you’re never going to achieve the same level of corrosion protection with a sprayed on primer that was preceded by a simple solvent wipe. (And that’s all you’re going to get at any body shop.)

Could you replace body panels such as whole doors or quarter panels and do better? Yes and no. If you buy a Ford OEM door, it will come with the same factory electrodeposition primer that I mentioned above – which is great. So will the quarter panel, but your body shop will grind right through that critical primer in order to get a surface that they can weld to. The door might end up lasting pretty well, but the quarter – wherever they removed the primer – will not.

One critical overall thing that will be missing from any body shop paint job – even if they did everything else just like the factory (which you now know they cannot) – is Process Control. One can argue that some OEM paint jobs should never have been allowed to leave the factory, but the level of Process Control they were a product of will never, ever be achieved by any body shop – period. Not gonna happen. So the variability of the processes used will be all over the map - and so will the results. So kid, are you feeling lucky?

One last note. Many body shops are capable of producing absolutely stellar looking paint jobs. There is however a huge difference between how a paint job looks and how it performs in terms of corrosion protection, chip and fade resistance, etc. I’ve seen some awesome looking paint jobs fall off in chunks of rusted metal a year or two after they were applied. Sure, some shops offer “lifetime” warranties on paint / collision work. Read the fine print though and you’ll find that their definition of lifetime doesn’t match yours at all.

So what’s my recommendation? Go ahead and paint it if you want, but it’s not going to last at all if you continue to drive it in the salt. I’d suggest applying that money to the down payment on a new truck. It’s a much better investment.

 

I wouldn't think of spending that much money to fix the rust. I worked my way through school in the late 60s and early 70s patching rust and fixing dents on used cars for resale. Fixing rust is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. You can fix the rust perfectly and it won't come back where you fixed it but it will rust out in other places that were thin but you didn't know it. My brother is 63 and he has worked in or owned a body shop since high school. He hates working on rusty vehicles and overprices rust estimates with the hope they do not get the work done. Most of his rust work is on GM and Dodge trucks. You know there is a problem when you can buy rust repair panels for 07+ GM pickup beds as well as older ones and 03+ Dodge beds (as well as cab corner and rocker panel panels for both). He gets a few rusty Ford pickups to fix but not many.

I would keep the money and put it towards a newer truck that is new or not from the rust belt.

 

Thanks for the input.

I wash my truck at least every two weeks if not more during the winter months. Usually by hand, but sometimes through an automatic wash with under spray. Paint defects? Maybe.

Yes, I know living in the salt belt isn't going to help, however, if I can mitigate the rust, I am fairly sure that I can get quite a few more years out of the body work -- even if rust starts it's curse in another location that is fine with me. I know the truck isn't going to last forever, no matter what I do to it; in fact no body shop will cover rust work and I don't blame them.

On a brighter note, I found someone who strictly works and likes to work on both commercial trucks and work trucks with rust. They showed me their work of various trucks that they have worked on with results immediately after and several years after demonstrating how their work held up. Granted, pointing out there was new areas, which showed in the pictures, but it is to be expected. They stated, "typically most don't want to deal with it, or they want it "showroom" condition. You'll never get showroom unless you buy a new truck. For something that gets used, this is normal." Which I agree.

I just want to control the rust to some extent without me using my flap disc on my angle grinder and a can of Duplicolor....

 

My truck is a very clean example of a northern truck thayvwas originally driven year round. I did end up with a couple dots of "rust.". A few dots on the lip facing the ground on the rear fenders and on a cab corner seam. 3-4 years ago I started blasting the **** out of them with fluid film. No issues since and they haven't changed. Thr worst one is hidden behind the rear bumper. Something caused thrbford stamping of the part number to flake off and rust. 2-3 years ago I soaked it in fluid film. No change. I've been doing that ever since until the day I can fill restore my truck. But until then, fluid film has been my saving grace. I washed the crap out of it and still ended up with those few areas. Since fluid film nothing has got worse. A few light surface rust areas in the floor pan seams. Same thing, coat consistently with fluid film.