I tried searching the forum without beating I'm sure a dead horse but couldn't find anything. My son bought his first vehicle 2002 Dodge Ram 4x4 1500 Quad pickup. The truck is immaculate except for the typical rust over the rear fenders for this truck. I'm aware of the foam inside the fender panels that causes this. My thoughts are instead of me wasting the time & expense of cutting all this out & replacing the panel section is to replace the whole bed. I have heard guys that had accidents in the first year of owning their new truck told by the body shop the entire inside of the bed is full of rust. My question is what year if any did Dodge stop this design & what would be the newest bed that would replace his 2002. Thanks for your help.

 

I have an 03' and the same rust issues. I went to junkyard and picked a used bed off an 05' for $900. Had a friend of mine replace and paint the bed. He also replaced the cab corners and rocker panels. I know a few guys that have 2005 dodge rams. 2 of them have no issues with rust on the wheel wells at all. But 1 of the guys I know has an 05' and he's got the famous bubbles in the paint above the wheel wells. So I'm not really sure what years are better.I'm thinking 05' was when they started changing the way they put the bed together. So what I do now is save my old oil from oil changes and pull the tail lights outta the bed, I then use a air powered under coating gun and spray the used oil all through the inside of the bed.

 

I've got an 08 now and it has the bubbles... dodge needs to recall them... file a complaint with your local dealer... it'll prolly turn out like the cracked dash... nothing will happen and we get to spend $2,500+ to fix