Howdy,

I've been obsessing about my rusting issue on my 98 dodge ram. Nice truck but lived in Minnesota and the owner didn't know what a car wash was. My fenders are falling out and I ordered flares to cover them up, I treated them to keep rust from eating the rest of the fenders out.. Now I'm debating on bed lining my rockers. I have a rusty cab corner im going to replace when the kit comes in, but I see the paint bubbling on my rockers and I just want to hide it. My plan is to hit it with a sander, try and sandblast to metal, and if the hole is overly large weld a piece of metal in to replace it and bedline over it. I was told not to do it, it would fall out and make things worse.. And I've also been told it retains the shape and Slows rust. I just want to keep this thing looking decent for a few more years..

What do you think?

 

Do the rocker panels, the key is getting all the existing rust out and then treating it with something is just like cancer, it spreads once it's there and if it is taken care of early it can be stopped, trust me I live in indiana

 

If the paint is bubbling then you will find a hole when you grind it down. Most likely a few pinholes. A trick I learned from the old guys when I worked at a body shop was for tiny holes like you may have in your rockers, use JB weld an then sand it flush. I'm not sure if its sold in the US or not but its a metal epoxy. You've got the right idea - sand down the bottom part of the truck and grind down the worst spots to bare metal and fill them with body filler. My truck is two toned so I did all the above, bedlined the two tone and then colour matched it. You could never tell. I've advise you to get your truck undercoated or spray the oil in your rockers yourself. It will double the life span of the rockers.

 

I had a rust problem on the bottoms of my doors..I had them repaired professionally and then I bedlined them before last winter (winter of 2012-2013). Unfortunately, the rust is starting to creep back after the brutal winter we had this year in western PA. My plan now is to treat the small areas with POR 15 and then touch it up with some rattle can bedlining since it's only on the very tips of the doors right now. Eventually I will have to have some new skins put on, but i'm waiting til I'm ready for a full paint job for that. Luckily, my cab corners and rocker panels were both completely rust-free so those will be saved by the bedlining.

If I had to do it again, I would paint the doors with POR 15 first, and then go over that with the bedlining...something needs to be done where the rust was before - it is definitely a cancerous devil and it is my sworn mortal enemy when it comes to my vehicles lol. When you're doing the bedlining, sanding and prep work is your best friend. I still have problems getting the lining to stick and not crack around the corners at the rear wheel wells and some other tricky areas like that are difficult to sand down well.