My $3150 mistake.

[dodge man]

I bought a used 3/4 ton Dodge Diesel, 2004 Quad Cab about 6 weeks ago. After reading peoples problems with diesels on this forum and on Dodge Cummins forums, I thought I knew what to look for. When I test drove the truck I drove it home and made sure it would fit in my garage, and then rolled underneath it with a creeper. The only think I could find wrong with it was a leaking power steering line, which was pretty minor. Otherwise it seemed mechanically very sound.

Herein lies the problem. I was so worried about the mechanicals, I didn't look at that body close enough. It really upsets me since I was under the truck on a creeper. It had rust in the rocker panels, and also on the rear quarter panels above the wheel wells. Well, $3150 later, the truck is fixed. The body shop thought the reapairs went well and I wouldn't have any problems in the near future. I don't regret buying the truck, and the cost was O.K., but if I had spotted the rust, I would have asked for a $3150 discount or passed on the truck.

 

[two_bit_score]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Hope there aren't any more surprises.

 

[Craig Clayton]

Now that you have new metal in the quarter panels I bet that it looks good. I would suggest you pore some brand of rust proofing to it. I have been using Fluid Film which I can purchase inTSC stores in my area.
It works very well. I do the spraying with some very low tech equipment.
I use a hot water bath in a steel bucket 145 F
In this I sit a large coffee can
I fill this will the fluid film ( cold it is like butterscotch pudding )
warmed ( like hot butterscotch pudding )
I fill a quality hand squeeze pumper sprayer ( set to pin point )
I spray this in lines which join together.
I spray inside of doors and sills without drilling holes.
A dry truck like yours would use 1 gallon first time
every year after that 1/2 gallon

Fluid Film? | Corrosion Preventative, Lubricant and Rust Inhibitor

Craig Clayton

 

[dodge man]

Thanks Craig, I've been thinking of doing that.

 

[timswi]

Sorry to hear that...My neighbor has a 2001 3/4 Dodge TD and he did have to have one of the rear doors patched, but nothing major..His truck is really nice...Flairs can be a problem child..Did you leave them off after the repair?...(if I remember correctly it had them).

 

[dodge man]

Yeah I left them on. The flairs weren't the problem, but did cover it up. In the front the flairs have worn some of the clear coat. The rust over the rear wheels was very minor and cheap to fix compared to the rockers.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Wow, $3150..... When I had our Dakota at work fixed, rust in the same places, it was only $800 but then again it came back in under 2 years. Hope your body guy does better work.

Hopefully it will be a good truck for you from now on. Good luck with it. Nothing like a 5.9L Cummins pulling a load. Always wanted one in a 99 through 07 F-350 SRW 4x4 with the Torqu Shift tranny out of a 2010 or new Superduty behind it.

Chris

 

[dodge man]

The rockers is what ate up all the labor. Each one had to be cut out, rewelded and blended in to the A, B, C pillars.

 

[Ryan03]

Sorry to hear about your rockers and wheel arches. GM's and Fords rot to. I just had both rockers and cab corners put on my 03 reg cab 2500 Chev. about 2 mo. ago. I paid $2300.00 for the body work , which also included painting the hood, and both sides of the truck, as well as wet sanding and buffing the roof and gate. The rockers and cab corner work alone was $800.00, and that was with me removing the doors, interior, and unbolting the bed and removing the rear bumper and hitch so the shop could just slip the bed back a couple feet to access the cab corners. The $2300 included 37.5 hrs of body labor, for the rockers, cab corners, and additional paint work, as well as all parts and supplies and Tax.

When I was picking mine up, they were just starting on a 04 or older{leaf spring front susp} F350 with rotted rear wheel arches. It can be astonishing what is hiding behind the sheet metal. My cab corners had rust blisters and were obviosly bad, but the rockers only had a couple of little chips to bare metal showing what I passed off as rock chips. The shop, which came highly recomended strongly suggested that I pony up and do rockers to, as normaly those little chips are actualy caused by the panel rotting from the inside out. I could not beleive what the inside of the rockers looked like when they cut them off. Here is a pic. The shop saved my old sheetmetal to show customers how nice a panel can look on the outside and what could be behind it.

 

[PoorMansCat]

sorry to hear about your misfortunes.... I am SSSOOOOO glad I do not live in the salt belt.
Of course, we have 110 degree heat, 99% humidity, tornados, fireants, droughts, poisonous snakes, misquitos....
I LOVE Texas!!!.

 

[hrcarver]

Ouch, how much is a flat bed? I'd rather have $3k and a rusty old truck.:laughing:

 

[RobertBrown]

While your thinking of it, now is good time to make a checklist of things to look over next time.
That's how I do it....less regrets that way. If you buy a bad one than you can say you did your best, rather than overlooked it

 

[timswi]

Honestly, given the cost of materials, I would say your bodyshop did this at a fair price.

If anyone doubts me, go to a body supply shop and price out a quart of basecoat/clearcoat with everything needed to apply (primer, reducers, sandpaper, patch panels etc)...Your head will spin. It's insane...That's why I got out of the restoration gig as a side job...Unless someone is willing to pay dearly.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I would say that your body shop did it right and fixed the problem the right way...
The labor was high but you should have a very good truck now...

 

[timswi]

I would say that your body shop did it right and fixed the problem the right way...
The labor was high but you should have a very good truck now...

Most shops don't want to deal with rust..Collision is far more profitable..37.5 hours is one guy for a week...That adds up in a pro shop....I agree though, he most likely got a pro result.

 

[Ryan03]

Most shops don't want to deal with rust..Collision is far more profitable..37.5 hours is one guy for a week...That adds up in a pro shop....I agree though, he most likely got a pro result.

Yeah, body work and paint job look factory or better. I am a muscle car guy who shows his cars, and trust me, I am **** about paint. The shop is a 2 man shop, the owner and another body tech. He specializes in rust repair on later model vehicles and also does light collision work. His low overhead allows him to keep the labor rate reasonable. He is always very busy and I had to book him 5 weeks in advance!!!!


The local collision shop quoted $4800.00 to do the same job.

 

[Sasquatch4100]

Had a story recounted to me when I was in tech school about a kid who'd bought a classic 'cuda back in the early 90's. He brought it into the shop to take a look at it up on the lift and when he was raising it up the front end started going up and the back didn't (old style dual post front and rear). They stopped and looked to find out that the lift post had went into the car quite a bit. Apparently it was a complete rust bucket that'd been patched with bondo, tape and undercoating spray to make it look normal. Heard it was a really sharp looking car. Except for that. It was in the North east so it's prime rust belt territory.

 

[slowzuki]

Yikes. I've got the rusty bed arches on my 2001 F350. I rolled some paint on them again this fall. When the bed falls apart finally it will become a flatbed.

 

[dodge man]

Its weird how the rust works. My rear wheel arches looked a lot like those pictures of the rockers. There was still a lot of solid metal, but there was surface rust on the back of the panel that was working it way through to the show side of the panel.

I was very pleased how the truck came out and I was also happy with the price. I was just hoping the cost would be less than 5k. I restored a 70 Challenger in 1970 and have been in the car hobby since then and have a pretty good idea the amount of work it takes for this kind of stuff. Whats tough about the rockers is they have to be cut, welded, and blended into all the door frames, which on a four door truck is a lot of work.

 

[cjfling]

sorry to hear about your misfortunes.... I am SSSOOOOO glad I do not live in the salt belt.
Of course, we have 110 degree heat, 99% humidity, tornados, fireants, droughts, poisonous snakes, misquitos....
I LOVE Texas!!!.

I was just going to say I'd never heard of such rusting issues in a ~10 year old vehicle. I really wanted to blame it on being a Dodge issue and then remembered the salting of roads up north. ha ha