I am one of the 3rd gen owners ('04) with the rear fenders rusting away. getting ready to do some diy autobody this weekend to clear up and stop the rust. has anyone had any sucess stopping the cancer from spreading. any tips / pointers? thx

 

I've never done body work before but one of the important steps everyone will say is make sure you get every little tiny bit of rust out of there during the prep work, otherwise it's a waste of time. Some members on here wrote about various underbody coatings and sprays to help prevent rust as well.

Oh yeah, and one last thing... make sure you take lots of pics before during and after and share them with us
Good luck and welcome to the forum!

 

Trust me i know what you mean... I am about to get it fixed.


LMC Repair panel;

 

Listen, there is an old redneck trick that would prevent this. Wash the vehicle and REMEMBER to get up inside them tire wells best you can, then when you're done, hook up an oscillating sprinker, you know the kind with the little bar goes from one side to the other and set it under the truck for a few minutes. It'll get all the salt and road grime off the bottom.

We do it religiously after being in that famous, red clay, Georgia mud. The mud will get soaked and just drop right off. I keep a plastic, $6 one from Ace right with my car cleaning stuff...

 

The same thing happened to my '96 dakota on both sides, however one side was completely rotted out. I used a grinder to get rid of the rust and then used bondo to shape it back then primed/painted.
You need to get any and all rust removed, be it using a grinder or some type of chemical treatment.

 

When I bought my 94 Dakota it was missing the passenger side mud flap.The rear inner fender on the drivers side was rusted but not the passenger side.So having mud flaps = inner fender rusting ??I pop riveted galvanized sheet metal strip from a hardware store and sealed the seams with a water proof tape called "Eternabond" sold at RV or camper stores.i had used it to seal the roof of my motor home,It was developed to seal under water electrical cables.Great stuff I think they have a type that you can paint over it.Google it.

 

My Nephews in New Hampshire spray the under bodies of their trucks with old crankcase oil prior to winter with much road salting going on.

 

With true surface rust you can buy a cheap sandblaster and you'll get all the rust out of the steel. You can grind all day and won't get it all. Just a tip from a co-worker whose first trade was auto-body repair

 

thanks for all the tips. all post some photos when i'm done.

 

What's your plans for having it painted?
On my truck I've been thinking about making some kind of design/decal that would let me do the painting myself. For the $$ it would cost to have the box painted there's no way I'd ever have it done