I say trade it in for a Chevy. I have a Chevy and it doesn't have hardly any rust on it. Metal coated in oil won't rust.

 

^I laffed.

My grandpa has a 97 C1500 that has a rusty frame.

It's 30k miles newer then mine, and mine has seen more work.

I've seen a lot of Chevys with rusty frames around here.

 

The trick is to not do any preventative maintenance.

 

My first YJ, the frame snapped behind the front passenger shackle due to rust. I care a whole lot more about my Ram than my YJ. When I first bought my Ram, I knew I was going to have to do rear wheel openings and the bottom door skins. After driving this winter, I have to pretty much do the whole body. Cab corners and everything. Luckily someone had replaced the rocker's in the past.
The floors can have holes, as long as the body mounts aren't rusted through. I figure once the body sag's, then it's about time to consider getting rid of it.

Come the spring I'm replacing a lot of body parts and re-doing the underside. Best is to grind everything down and coat it all in gravel guard or bed liner... then come winter get an under spray. I love my truck too much to let the rust get the best of it.

 

any of u know why dodge had the bright idea of putting some sort of black foam in the wheel wells on the bed... mine are rotting out on one of my trucks and i noticed it in there

 

Black foam? I thought the kid I bought the truck off of just spray foamed the holes and shot black paint on it.lol
I'd like to know why as well.

 

I think Chevy's come with a rust package from the factory. There's so many rusting in my area

 

There's a niceish Silverado just up for the road for sale, think it was in the $3k range, rusting pretty good too.

 

my chevy, this was a few years ago... theres more rust now ... + took the doors off

 

Trust me from years of experience, simply undercoating OVER rust doesn't help. If anything it accelerates the problem. It traps moisture and salt in the rusty scale and holds it against the metal. You gotta scrape, wire brush and if you can, blast the rust first, getting it as bare as possible. Then chemically treat the rusted metal, something even as simple as a vinegar soaked rag wrapped around the rusted area works great. Wire brush again, then it's ready for undercoating. Not using that cheap $6.00/can garbage, but a good high oil content/ high flexibility undercoating.

Agreed with body advice however. Keep weep holes clear, spray key inside areas with something like LPS-3 just before winter each year or white lithium grease because of it's initial penetrating qualities. My 1984 Chevy Caprice Classic still has it's original body and it's rust free! That's unheard of up in NY here unless you don't drive a vehicle in the winter.

My truck's body was rotted before I got it so I gave up on that. I'm just gonna replace the body panels and start from scratch instead of fighting it. The frame however is great! I do my best to keep it that way too.