Hello,
I have a 1997 ram 1500 the doors on the bottom are just starting to break through with rust, I am trying to figure out some diff ways I can stop it before ir gets real bad. I am not a body man and I want to try to be inexpensive so any help from the folks out there would be great. i also would like to know if anyone knows and really good site for accessories for dodge trucks. One more thing I would like a service manual for this year of truck and thoughts on that as well?


thanks in advance for your help
Matt

 

Spray it down regularly with WD40.

when you get time, spray it all down with naval jelly. Grind the rust off. Prime it, paint it, clear coat it, and keep wax on it.

This mopar paint ain't the hottest **** in the world. But if you keep wax on it it'll hold up just fine.

 

That rust comes from the inside of the badly designed door. So whatever you do to the outside won't do squat. You have to cut away all the rust and repair the panel. After it's repaired, the best thing you can do is use one of those old time oil squirt cans and shoot it in through the oval holes on the bottom of the door. Not too much though, or it will seep out for days.

 

I'm in the same boat. This last winter for the first time some paint off of an awful factory stripe started to flake off and got some surface rust. Had 6 different body shop estimates and only 1 thought it needed new metal, others thought it was early enough to be ok. Quotes ranged from 350-1200 for the guy that wanted new metal. Found a guy advertising on Craigslist that is going to repaint the stripe the body color and fix the rust for $250. We'll see how it turns out.

 

You have a stripe on the bottom of the door? Other areas of the body can have surface rust from chipping and such, sure. But the bottom of the door is 99 percent of the time from the inside out.

 

I call it a stripe, but it's 2 tone paint from the factory, lower body line of the truck is a different color. I'm not going to be shocked if it rusts out a few years down the line again, or even a year from now, but for $250 it's worth a shot. I'll have the door panels off in the next couple weekends for stereo work, I'll know the full extent of the issue then.

 

Just so you know, when it rains or even when you wash the truck the water gets inside the door through the window gasket. And since the small drain holes not only get clogged over time, but they are actually slightly higher than the bottom seam of the door. So that moisture just sits there, and you know the rest of the story.

 

So is it wise to make new drain holes then? In my case, I'd like the truck one color, but might end up sticking two tone last minute because I can't expect the guy to match white.

 

I have the same prob. hopefully I can get a new door is this a common prob in these trucks Zman???

 

At least half of very Ram of this generation I've seen in WI have been rusting out the same way.