Hey all. I've had this rust spot that's been building for a while and yesterday I finally go the chance to work on it.


I've removed as much rust as I could. As you can see, the metal that actually rolls underneath the door has been removed. It was deteriorated beyond repair and just crumbled off. I removed back to the good metal but you can still see there is rust there on the outside panel.


This is underneath the door. The paint is actually beginning to chip and lift. I suppose there is rust underneath the paint on the outside of the door. How far up it goes I don't know.

What's the best way to approach fixing this? I bought this truck brand new in 2001, and the rest of it is immaculate with no rust anywhere. It's just this one spot. I've not done much body work so I want to make sure to approach this the best way possible. The only thing I have going for me is that it's on the bottom of a door where people are less likely to notice. There is a local body guy that can spray it for me for *******ly nothing as he has the paint left over in stock right now. If I can do the prep work this will be a really cheap fix for me.

BTW - after I removed as much rust as possible, I sprayed a coat of primer over the exposed metal to try and stop the deterioration for now.

 

I had a paint and body shop years ago and if it was me here is what I would do to make a lasting repair. Where paint is actually beginning to chip and lift you will need to remove that paint as well. What is happening is the rust is pushing to the outside panel and paint away from the door and if it is't removed the rust will return. You may have to go a inch or two above the rust to make sure there is NO RUST LEFT or you will be do the same job again on the door and or doors. It seemd our Dodges all have the same problems with the doors and it seems to always be in the same spot.
If you can't aford to get it painted soon you can use POR15 on the bear metel and it will keep the rust away. I can also tell the whole seem ubder the door is gone and you also stated that as well. You can take a meg and put 2 spot wields so the rest of the door skin don't try to come apart.
Good luck on the repair and if it is done right it will last for another 10 years as long as the wep holes in the door are clear

 

sand it down to bare metal and get as much/all of the rust off.

We had to weld in new replacement panels on our truck because the rust was just so bad.
Pictures and stuff here if you want to peek.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...-overhaul.html

Then we sanded, smoothed, used body filler where necessary, smoothed, and primed, then painted.

That is the "proper" way to do it.

If you just want to stop it dead in it's tracks, we used POR15 on the entire truck chassis, the floor of the cab, engine bay, EVERYWHERE that metal was exposed. You lay it over existing rust (scrape off any loose stuff), and it will keep it from spreading. This really won't be helpful on rust that is on the exterior painted surfaces... since it will look pretty crappy. But you can probably just grind the edge of the door, and paint some on, and it will be hardly noticeable....

 

Thanks for the direction. I've used POR-15 before and one of my original thoughts was to, as you stated, expose as much of the metal as needed. Then I was going to apply a coat of POR-15 on top of that to seal the problem area. Your idea of the spot welds is good, but I don't have the type of equipment that I'd need to do that. Most of the area is still in tact so if I could just stop the deterioration that would be a good first step. Painting is a non-issue. The shop close to me has the exact paint to match for the exterior already. I just would like to do the prep work to save myself some money and for the experience.

Thanks Girly TT. I'm somewhat familiar with body panels and replacements, but this is sort of a problem area to deal with. It's not an area where you can just chop and replace. From the thread you mentioned, it looks like you were well on the way of making the truck look good again.

Edit - actually I just realized there were 6 pages to this thread. That truck has come a long way! I love seeing these types of transformations from people who know what in the hell they are doing.

 

Yea, the edge of the door is a real pain to deal with, and seem to be a common problem area. We just grinded ours down as much as we could, primed and painted. We were fortunate to not have holes, etc.

We actually just got the bed of the truck on earlier today. This project started in October'ish... we're over 15k in... that's a shop owners cost... just paying our employee to do the body work/paint.... looking at the $$$ we have into it... we could have almost bought a brand new one and been better off LOL

 

That may be what I do. Just sand and cut until the rust is gone. Then maybe build the area back up with fiberglass or something and try and reshape. I don't know - the best thing to do would be to find a good door, but how long is that going to last before it rusts also?

I'm just trying to make this truck last as long as I can. I love not having a vehicle loan and mine has been paid off for 5 years and it still looks (mostly) new. Only has 53000 miles. I figure if I can get another 10 years out of it I can put all that money towards my motorcycle habit.

15k is a lot to commit you are right, but when it's done you'll hopefully have it for a while. Plus, what fun is buying a new one? This one will be customized entirely to your liking.

 

that's what we did on our old ram. Just used fiberglass to fill it back up, and nuked some primer and paint on it. as long as it's sealed up, the rust shouldn't come up again.


yea, most of the doors have that rust, so, you're just replacing one problem, with another.

We do a LOT of towing for our shop, and are picking up a 2 car hauler, so... we figure we'll get our $$ out of it, so, may as well do it how we want. LOL

 

We used a product called "all metal" on the bottom of the doors on that truck. It's just like a body filler but it gets hard like steel. Kinda like a JB weld. It's great for areas like the door you are having issues with. It's pretty inexpensive at around $30 for a quart.

 

That's not inexpensive! However, I think that would be an excellent product for building up larger areas - such as where panel replacements may be needed and you don't want to spend the money for the panel. That product may be too hard for me to work with in that area.

I'll add it to my list of possibilities. I didn't even know anything like that existed. Thanks for the pointer.