If events align themselves correctly, Friday afternoons are terrific times to address various projects around the house with a recent Friday afternoon dedicated to that purpose. However, my intended mission of rotating the tires mushroomed into a new and unwelcome realm.
Earlier this summer my parents said adios to the State of Illinois after fifty-one years and moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to be nearer family, friends, and medical facilities. As they are in their early to mid-70s, this was a wise move. The move was also a downsize for them, requiring a purge of many years of accumulated crap. My wife and I were headed down to partake of some treasures in said figurative crap (well, a new 3,500 kW generator isn’t crap, I suppose) with the mass of these items requiring use of our 2007 Ford F-150.
The tires on the pickup are Cooper Discoverer A/T3’s in the last half of their life cycle and were due for rotation. Cooper says the maximum service life is ten years, which I am well below, and the plan is to replace them later this year. Tread depth isn’t yet an issue as they were at 5/32″ in front and 7/32″ in the rear prior to rotation. This is admittedly getting thin for my tastes although Cooper has a lower tread depth threshold of 2/32″.
Overall these tires have aged very well. The pickup has been parked inside for most of the time since purchasing it in 2012 although that changed this past spring.
Back in March rust bubbles appeared above both rear wheels and on the fender behind both front tires, this being the one on the right. Looking at other F-150s of the same vintage reveals rust is appearing in the same spots on them.
When I pulled off the right front tire, seeing this wet gritty sludge around the edges of the fender liner made me curious.
I’ve been reasonably diligent in keeping this pickup washed during my ownership. With these cleanings the undercarriage is always hosed down since the evils of corrosion tend to begin in obscure areas.
Removing the fender liner revealed this hot mess:
No wonder rust had started. This is frustrating.
Here is the removed material.
The garden hose was then used to wash out any remaining debris. The water was chocolate milk colored for a good ten seconds.
Leaving the fender liner loose, I moved to the other side. My wife had warned me about critters possibly being in the mess. Surely not, I thought.
The driver’s side was not much different in volume of material except my wife jinxed me. There were an abundance of ants (or some unsavory creature) scurrying around, many of whom decided to sprint up my arm as I was removing this mess.
Such things happen.
The garden hose cleanse here did not yield nearly as much murky water.
So what to do? Everybody has that line in which tolerance goes away when crossed; mine is rust as that word is not in my vocabulary. With an abundance of pricey things all happening simultaneously, the reality is I’m keeping this pickup for a while. So I got creative, optimistically hoping my actions would at least slow things down.
One can hope, can’t they?
Looking around my stash of things, I found some anti-rust paint. If this paint will work on outdoor equipment it’s worth a shot. I even had my choice of black or white. Black sounded better.
After the fenders dried out, I blasted the ever living shit out of the insides of both fenders with this paint. Time will tell how well this works. I’m not naive enough to think the problem has been arrested but if it slows success has been realized.
The fender liners didn’t want to sit quite as snug against the fender after my paint treatments. Some clear silicone filled the tiny gap.
When this pickup was purchased I figured the day would come in which rust would be a factor. Why? This pickup came from Indianapolis and we know cars from there rust. Things happen.
So it appears the day of reckoning has arrived. We shall see how this plays out.
The Canadians are seeing your rust problem and snorting their coffee over their keyboards 🙂 But yes, that stuff getting into that cavity is a problem and something the wheel well liner is supposed to protect against. Worst case you sand the lower edge down to bare metal and turn it into a two tone truck with a lower body accent color lined up with that crease that runs bumper to bumper.
No doubt they are. I live far enough south that rust is an infrequent intruder.
Perhaps when I go to sell I should take it north and sell it as a cream puff.
I know Vince C. will hopefully chime in, but from my observations, older F-150s are bad rusters in Canada.
That looks like a manufacturing defect, that Ford would/should have detected in testing. The liner should have been designed to prevent this, certainly not exacerbate it.
To me the liner should not be under-lapping the metal fender edge. It allows road debris to be forced into that crack. Unless the mud and debris is coming from above.
If you have that problem, many others would. Reminds me of the lawsuits against Chrysler and their Aspen/Volare front fenders. In fact, when I’d wash my dad’s Dodge Aspen, I would see hard mud caked up inside the tops of the rear fender arches and by the dog leg. One of the worst locations Aspens and Volares rusted. Bad engineering, Chrysler would have known from testing. As these locations would hold that caked mud indefinitely, no matter how much you washed the vehicle. Automatic car washes can’t reach those areas. Nor do self car wash wands. Though the wand would at least let you flush the dog leg of the fender inside.
Flushing out your truck’s under-body and wheel arches, plus leaves and debris from under the hood regularly is considered routine maintenance. The owner having to remove the fender liner to flush out inside the fender is *not*. This looks like a Ford defect. A bad design.
I agree with Daniel, the Ford trucks are bad for rust. This generation has already thinned out around here. A friend of mine has almost the exact truck as Jason’s, and his is in above average shape for this area. It has no cab corners left and is rusting over the rear wheels. Like I mentioned previously, another friend has newer F150, a 2011, and his has cab corners rusted through, and his rockers are going too.
The boxes in this generation are known to rust through over the rear wheel wells, from the inside out. Of course so do the other makes. A coworker with a 2010 ended up.replacing his box on an otherwise mint truck a couple of years ago due to this rust.
The fender rust on your truck Jason, isn’t something I have seen much of on these F150s. Obviously the build up behind there is the cause as it is rusting from the inside out. Personally I’d suggest spraying the inside of that fender liberally with an oil based rust proofing. You should be able to find some fluid film in an aerosol can. It is a decent rust proofing oil and is thicker than Krown or Rust check. In this type of situation a thicker oil would be better.
Worst case scenario, fenders are pretty cheap and not too hard to change. You might even luck out and find a set of red fenders at the junk yard, then you won’t have to paint.
I’ve already been shopping for beds as those presented themselves first. Fenders would be relatively easy to change out.
I forgot to mention, before you invest a bunch of money in the truck, make sure you inspect your frame well too. Ford’s boxed frame can rust from the inside out. The exterior paint coating is pretty good on these frames, so the internal rust can creep up without noticing until it’s too late.
https://www.f150online.com/forums/2004-2008-f-150/499817-04-fx4-frame-blues.html
Changing a box isn’t bad either, other than the lifting. My neighbour has a crane on his work truck, so he actually pulls the bed off his truck by himself every couple of years to clean and repaint the frame (this year he had to change a rusted sending unit too).
Us Michiganders are as well! A friend of mine has this generation F150 and I had noticed a spot where the paint flaked off behind his front wheel, I bet after seeing these photos that he has the same issue. Amazing how much has packed up behind there, I wonder if that is all road debris or a critter was stashing things there as well?
Pickups in general seem to be lagging behind passenger cars in terms of rust resistance. Before I got my current 01 Silverado, I had considered purchasing one from the 07-13 generation for increased corrosion resistance, but once I started looking more closely at them I noticed the telltale bubbling above the rear wheels. I decided that since rust seemed to be inevitable in them as well, that I’d save myself ~$8000 and get roughly the same result in the end.
I hate rust. Good thing you caught it, but like you said, you just bought it some time. Is salt used where you live? We use…. gravel; it chips paint (and windshields) and causes rust…. You just can’t win.
This Californian is seeing your rust problem and wondering how such a new truck could have any rust? But seriously, my vehicles (well, except my motorcycles and my wife’s car) have always sat outside under trees and the accumulation of leaves and plant debris under cowls and inside fenders, plus dirt exactly where you found it, has always made me wonder A) why manufacturers haven’t solved that yet, and B) what happens in those spots where roads are salted. I guess I know the answer to B) now, and that Ford is no better, or worse, than Toyota, or VW, or Subaru in their design. On my 1993 Land Cruiser, I could remove the cowl at the base of the windshield by pulling the wipers and a few screws, and made it an annual task, which always netted several large handfuls of rotting leaves. On our New Beetle, pulling the dash cover to replace the cabin air filter also exposed far more crap than should be allowed to accumulate in such a difficult to reach spot.
It is amazing what you find in those places where you never look. Back in the late 70s I noticed some little bubbles around the headlight eyebrows of my 59 Plymouth. I spent about a half hour scraping twenty years of packed dirt out of that area in both sides with a screwdriver and then my fingers. With no fender liners, I guess I now understood where all the muddy spray went when driving.
But wow – you wonder how all that stuff got there.
The doggonned pickups seem to be the worst rusters these days, all of them.
I’m not stunned by what you found behind the wheel well. I am stunned that very few check that location on a regular basis. While I don’t have to concern myself with that on my five vintage cars, as they are always covered and never driven in water, I do clean out those areas in the daily drivers four times a year. Never much since they are not parked under trees which is just how I like it.
I do recall when I got my 1965 F-100 13 years ago and placed my hand down through the vents to get behind the front fender it was packed with pine needles. Metal was rough inside but no rot through anywhere. I dodged a bullet there and then flooded the area with Eastwoods Internal Frame coating. Been good ever since.
Why would anyone think to remove a fender liner when doing their best to keep their vehicle in tip-top shape? And even if he knew about it, who would want to regularly remove their fender liners when washing their vehicle?
Jason did what any reasonable, conscientious owner would do, but it still wasn’t enough. Sadly, when the cancer has reared it’s ugly head, it’s pretty much too late, even when the cause is found.
Even if you follow the owner’s manual recommendations on body care, this would likely not be caught if you regularly flush the under body and wheel wells.
Maybe it is just me but I do know others who also check that area. I can trace my interest all the way back to 1970 when washing my Cougar. Looking into the grille area I could see some debris and went flushing it out with a hose. As we all know now debris that lingers there in Mustangs and Cougars cause big leaks over your feet.
So while flushing I see the water exit behind the front wheel. I got down on the ground and saw the small opening with some debris in it. It was at this point where I put 2+2 together and started to clean this area out around twice a year being as how it was San Diego.
Later, over time, I always noticed Chevy trucks, from the 60s, all having rusted out areas behind the front wheel. I perceived that many cars had places where dirt and leaf matter could accumulate over time and one needed to clean them out and have been doing it since 1970. I also open front door panels to vacuum out once a year debris that collects also for the same reason. Besides being a perfectionist when it comes to restoration I am also thorough.
On 3rd gen 4Runners the corners of the chrome bumpers rot out front and rear, the rest of the body is remarkably well galvanized, the frame is a different story. Anyways I learned early on to hose out those bumper corners front and rear on a regular basis, particularly if I took the truck offroad. The rear bumper corners in particular would get absolutely packed with dirt and hold moisture for a long time against the metal. In addition to the regular attentive washing, I treat the whole underside to Fluid Film.
Bummer Jason, that is not a pleasant surprise to someone who takes pride in their vehicle. Just last week I noticed some tree seeds poking out of the same location on my wife’s Camry. Lots of loose plant debris in there from the neighborhood trees, but fortunately no packed dirt to hold moisture against the metal. Shop-vacced it out. Looks like a new seasonal maintenance task I hadn’t thought of before.
Yup, that looks exactly like the wad of mud I used to clean out of our 2001 Focus every few years.
I warned Jim Grey since he had a Focus too, but it appears other vehicles are similarly affected.
Come to Canada, I’ll buy you a dinner, you can pick up a few cans of Krown goo and spray some into the rust prone cavities of your F150…
Krown rust control is a great product. I live just outside of Toronto and have all my vehicles sprayed every fall for around $150.00. Whenever I am under my 1980 Camaro or have the wheels off of it, I spray everywhere I can reach with Fluid Film. This would definitely help the Ford pick up.
https://www.fluid-film.com/
I may take you up on that offer.
I actually find that the Corrosion Free Formula 3000 cans are better than the Krown for small touch ups. I have been using Krown for over 20 years and it is good, but I find the newer formulas are too thin and don’t last on the undercarriage nearly as long as it used too. The Corrosion Free aerosol cans can be bought cheaply at TSC on sale.
https://www.tscstores.com/400ML-FORMULA-3000-RUST-CURE-P9569.aspx
Given the volume of intact leaves and mud, I have a feeling there is a cavity, perhaps underneath where that debris is getting pushed in there. Where it is accumulating. And if there are drain holes at the bottom of the fender, to allow water out, they were long ago plugged up.
This is one area where Volvo was renowned. Careful engineering and body construction that prevented rust from starting.
I’m from Canada, but would have thought that Illinois would have just as capable, if not better health care facilities as Missouri.
It’s more a matter of proximity. Any need for less than basic medical facilities would have transported them 175 miles away due to the ridiculous requirement of staying within the state. Conversely, they moved to a town 35 miles away, that happens to be in a different state, and comparable facilities are five minutes away with the next ramp up in scale being 100 miles away.
While Chicago is in Illinois, much of the state is quite rural. While Missouri is also quite rural, there is a major city on each side of the state.
That’s about as much as I will touch any health care debate in this forum! 🙂
I’ll bet much of that debris came in from the cowl vent. Cowl vents usually drain behind the front fenders, and leaves and dirt can collect in the gap between the lower fender and the bottom of the A pillar where the water is supposed to run out.
These pictures reminded me of the cowl vent in my 2006 Crown Victoria. When that car was about 8 years old, it developed a problem with the windshield wipers, and I removed a plastic cover under the cowl to look for the problem. That whole vent area was filled with leaves, and whatever that brown stuff is called after leaves have composted somewhere for a long time.
After that, I just left that plastic cover off, and vacuumed the vent area out occasionally. But I couldn’t believe how much junk was packed into that space.
You remind me that I need to go fishing in the cowl area of a certain Kia Sedona to find the little walnut that is rolling from side to side when I make turns. Damn squirrels.
This would definitely account for the leaves. But what about all the mud? Unless the mud is from the fender liner.
Could there be open area under the fender behind the liner?
Yes, that’s what I was originally thinking. An opening underneath or behind. To allow that volume of mud to get in there. The fender liner seam would be too small for that volume of mud.
Either way, the engineering seems very iffy here. Many F-150s would likely have this problem.
Agreed. The leaves are a factor but were on top of the mud. While lucky enough to have two driveways, one is beneath a row of elm trees and the other is beneath a large oak tree. And it’s only been parked outside since March or April.
Was about to say the same thing, Bob. The cowl drains through the inner fenders on a lot of cars. I had to replace the wiper motor on my Citation X-11. I discovered 37 years of crud plugging the drains. Thankfully the car is a Southern car and had been garaged in the 7 years of my ownership!
Everyone should grab a long flat zip-tie and check the drains at the bottom of their doors, too. Those clog easily and rust starts in the door. Running the zip tie back and forth through the drains in the bottom of the door keeps them free and running…
How about an aluminum truck?
😉
If you dump a load of bricks in from 5 feet up, it beats up the box, scratches the paint, AND MAKES A COUPLE SMALL HOLES IN THE SHEET METAL!
If you have a steel bed, it just beats up the box and scratches the paint. Which then starts rusting…
So you get holes one way or the other. At least with aluminum you get a head start!
It takes more time, but aluminum will corrode. Here by the beach in California, a friend’s old S-class Mercedes is rusting around the windows and the aluminum hood and trunk lid are starting to corrode at the corners.
Rust, yep I solved that problem or rather Citroen solved it by galvanising their cars during assembly so it wont rear its ugly head in my ride, I have actually washed my car once since I bought it, I’ll do it again when I’m on the milk we have a particularly effective waterblaster in the yard with a good soap feature it does a wonderful job on stock trucks and milk tankers so a five door Citroen should be well within its capabilities.
There’s a black locust tree that hangs over my home and driveway. Every other year it creates and drops about 36.7 billion big black seed pods that can hurt if they hit me on the head in a certain way.
But every year the tree generates trillions of tiny yellow leaves that clog my home gutters and get into all the nooks and crannies of the Tacoma. Recently I checked the Tacoma’s cabin air filter and it was totally clogged with these tiny yellow leaves. Now my vehicle maintenance routine includes vacuuming the air inlets in front of the windshield, the wiper crannies, the fender nooks at the each corner of the firewall, and that area inside the two front doors under the bottom hinge.
Plus I check the cabin filter (which is easy to reach).
Now you have me worried about the fender liners!
I am not obsessive or compulsive, I just act like I am.
My 3rd gen Tacoma definitely traps stuff behind the wheel well, in front of the doors. I use compressed air to blow out the cowl debris that I can’t vacuum up. Though I suspect I may just be embedding some crap further in. But glad to read that I’m not the only guy who vacuums under my hood 😀
Every fall when the snow tire are installed out come the wheel liners and I hose it all down then tlouch up any spots where my undercoat has come off. But now that I think of it I never do this in the spring after all the salt. I also have never take off the cowl by the windshield. Thanks for the ideas.
I own an ’81 Fiat X1/9 and I am absolutely outraged by that rust on an ’07 Ford!
Unacceptable in this day and age.
It’s weird to see this from this country, where cars – effectively – no longer rust at all. No salt, no snow, not all that much rain.
But it’s not a disaster. It’s just a cost of cost. The corrosion-free F-150 could be made, but the all-composite version just might prove a bit unsaleable, pricewise. To put it mildly.
My understanding is that all modern cars are galvanized (or the steel is). But salt will use the zinc as intended, an anode, and rust is eventually unavoidable. As for those pesky plastic liners, imagine the structural stuff saved from exposure by their (universal) fitment. The only real criticism that might be made is that Ford should have made their periodic removal and cleaning a service item. In fact, I wonder if it was?