I have a 2001 Ford F150 SuperCrew with the 4.6L V8. It is still an excellent truck and can get close to 20 MPG. The only major issue I have had with this truck is the body panel between where the front door closes and the bottom just above the running boards have rusted through. This has happened on both driver and passenger side of the truck. last year I sanded and coated with primer. Although while sanding I got disgusted that the weak metal didn't appear to be ending so I gave up until I could get more professional opinons. The metal does appear to be very solid where the door hinges are. I have thought about bondo but I am not certain how I would do this with this kind of rust and hole. The inside panel of the doors do show some rust too but I think I can manage that by sanding, priming, and painting without feeling that my truck is crumbling before my eyes. I can send pics to show you what I mean.

 

yes this is a problem with these trucks. mine is getting rusty on the inside bottom of 2 out of my 4 doors, but doesnt sound nearly as bad as yours. it rusts from the inside out

 

If you want the truth, theres no way to really fix it. You'd have to replace the entire door to truly have it rust free. Yea you can sand it and continue to prime and paint but the rust will only come back. Once it starts rusting and you don't remove all of it which in most cases is practically impossible because it's in areas you can't reach, it just continues rusting.

 

yup Ford with their great design haha

 

Very common issue, I had it happen on my last 2001 F150 Supercab. It was silver in color. I did like you and took a wire brush bit on my drill and removed the light rust (not rusted through). Anyway, I just wanted to cover the rust with something, and I found a bottle of metalic Silver Rustoleum I used on a project in my workshop. Anyway, it was almost a perfect match.

I sold that truck a couple months ago, and the couple who bought it asked how I kept it from rusting since all the other trucks they looked at had rust in those spots (bottom of each door and the tail gate bottom) I told them that I just took real good care of my truck (which I did).

I just replaced that 2001 F150 Supercab with an almost identical 2001 SuperCrew. On my Supercrew, there are plastic pieces on the bottoms of the door, not sure if the last owner added those or if they came that way from the factory. Seem like they prevent he rusting issue. Anyone know about these? I can take pictures if noone knows.

 

id like to see pictures if ya dont mind. if its something that would keep mud/water out of the bottom of the door id especially like to see it!

 

I think they were put on after the fact. I removed them over the weekend and did find some rust on two of the door panels. I used a wire brush on a drill to removed the top of the rust and then sprayed over the top with a closely matching rustoleum. I have the pictures, but couldn't figure out how to quickly post them.

 

The Supercrew rusting in the rocker areas and bottom of the doors are due to way to small drain holes in the rockers and doors. The Rockers once they are starting to rust you might as well plan on replacing them with new ones. However they only offer the whole side for the supercrew which is some serious cash for the parts also the body shop will not be cheap to due this repair. But when I re did my 2001 Supercrew I found you can order 1-left & 1-right side rocker for a Supercab and with some modification and welding you can make a real nice repair and never even kmow it was redone. I bought mine from "Raybucks" and the beauty is they are actually us made and heavier than factory with a drain hole every 4" I also used POR-15 Rust stopper on my doors and oped up the drains at the bottom of the doors. POR-15 is the best stuff I ever used for stopping rust in it's tracks, Rustoleum is a waste of time & money.