Friends:

I'm looking at a 2002 F-250 4x4 dual cab with the 7.3. Super low mileage owned by a snowbird who is selling out here in FL. KBB shows the value at around $20K, and I assume it has baked in current market conditions, etc. into its pricing algorithms.

Problem is there is no factor in the algorithm for rust, cause by our salt air near the coastline. There is body rust, especially at the bottom of the door panels and also the underside is pretty rusted up (springs, shackles, frame. On the underside structural parts it looks like surface rust, not too deep....but still.

How should I factor in the rust in the price? Some kind of percentage of overall cost. To repair it with body work and parts replacement I ballpark will cost about 5-7K.

Your thoughts welcomed, and appreciated!

No help on the pricing, but if it has flares on it.....tighten the fasteners or remove a few to check for rust behind.

My neighbor and I both have these rigs, his nicer than mine. His has stainless flares and when we replaced his IDM, it was devoid of metal behind the lower flare....all cancer. Mine has none.

I think you’ve answered your own question. 5-7k would be the amount to deduct. Personally, rust is a no go for me. Tells me the vehicle wasn’t maintained and cared for properly, and it’s only going to get worse.

Yep! Washing and waxing a vehicle is part of a good maintenance plan.

I wouldn't buy it. I had a nice Nissan Frontier, but in 7 years of driving in the salt and snow it had bad rust. It was worth $7 grand but I was going to sell it for $2 Grand.

My brother the lawyer told me it wasn't worth the risk, he said to take it to the crusher and collect the $400. I went ahead to sell it, I was taking the buyer for the test drive, and I applied the brakes and the pedal went to the floor. The brake line had just rusted in two and all the brake fluid had squirted out. Fortunately I was able to control the crippled truck and didn't crash.

I realized brother was right all along.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It helps.
Move to a place with winter and brine, you will lose a bit of your self righteous attitude.

Not at all uncommon to see nice well maintained vehicles with perfect mirror shiny paint. Missing rockers, cab corners, or holes surrounding the wheel wells.


I envy those where it's not a problem, rust is the reason we personally junk cars.
Everything else is repairable, once rust gets going fixing costs thousands.
The fixes only last a few years, then the bubbles come back.

I can’t help with the price. It’d make sense to me that it could effect price more in an area where that rust is less common so that there’s more choices without the rust than in a region where it’s common place.

That rust reminded me of when my sister moved to FL from up here and took her car to a mechanic shortly after moving down there. The mechanic saw her out of state DL and commented that he thought it looked like an up north car based on the amount surface rust on the bolts and undercarriage. The car was only about 5 years old and the paint still looked great but undercarriage rust and eventually rust around wheel wells and bumpers is going to happen in places with months of weather hovering back and fourth above and below freezing daily and all of that road salt/slush being driven through. It gets into every nook and cranny.

Agreed

LOL! You think Northern Tennessee doesn’t keep the damned roads covered in salt all winter? For the most part, it is unnecessary, but they still have to get rid of all that salt so they can buy more next year and not have their budget cut.

Rust is a no go for me. Then I live in a dry climate. I can't imagine driving some of the rust buckets, I've seen. Dents are fine, they can be repaired, or left. Rust not so much.

A sample of one, but have some broad experience with keeping and improving older trucks. If there is any significant body/frame rust, here is no easy permanent cure and trying such can be a costly/nagging effort.

Long ago learned to say "not this one".

Yep.

All of the washing and waxing in the world does no good once salt finds its way in tiny nooks/crannies and cracks or between inner and outer panels. Some beds even have 3 surfaces, outer bed skin, inner wheel well and the part you see on the inside of the bed, the inner wheel well which you really can't see and damn sure cannot wash.

My old truck was washed underneath after any snow event and at about 180k and 10 years old it started showing some paint bubble. 30k more miles and 6-7 years has the outer and inner rockers gone, cab corners as well.

About all can do is slow it down but steel is going to rust.

Or bite the bullet if it's a good enough buy and redo the vehicle. Did that on the 08 I bought 2 years ago. 60k miles but had sat most of its life. I believe it sat after a lot of salt was sprayed underneath.

Outer rockers were shot, inner wheel wells gone, some rust over tires on bed sides.






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Yup, if it’s rusted through anywhere,I won’t give it a second look, regardless of price. Rust = poor care and maintenance.

I will take salt any day of the week. Brine is applied with a sticking agent. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Rust from road salt doesn’t start on the body (outside) it starts underneath especially voids in the body. These aren’t areas being waxed.

Or on some piss poor body designs water is getting into poorly sealed seams and cannot escape.

GM pickups were bad about this on the 99-at least 06. Top of cab where back of cab and roof meet water could get in but no way out at bottom of cab corner.

I got a 05 tundra eat up in the frame last inspection dude said no way n hell it’s gonna pass this year.Prime candidate for farm use tags cause I ain’t buying another one for dumpster runs once a week.

International Harvester Scouts were brutal. When I worked for them I witnessed a used Scout start to rust 2 weeks after the body shop fixed it.

Probably the worst of them all in that department.

As a kid my dad bought a 72 800a cheap during the first gas crisis, 73 or 74. When we sold it in 79 the tailgate couldn’t be used for fear the entire unit would fall off from rust.

I dont live in a climate where the roads are salted, so have little experience with the problem.

Whatever happened to undercoating vehicles, don't people do that any more? In the mid 1950's when I was about 15, I had a job at a car dealership, my job was to spray undercoat under every new car that came in. IIRC it was kinda like a tar substance, applied hot.

Just curious.

Thanks

Factory frames are coated. Still no coating between panels where the problem usually starts. Cannot coat where 2 panels are sandwiched together, salty water gets in and rust starts right where heat transfer or at weld holding panels together.

If redoing one can coat panels with paint before putting together with adhesive instead of welding in as many spots as possible.

If there’s a 10% chance of flurries 3 days out, they’ll spray the roads here with that chit if it’s sunny and 70 degrees. I know the bastards responsible for this, and have told them I hope they are buried in a tub of that vile chit.

When that first caught on, our former governor and his brother owned a chain of truck stop/gas stations, all complete with car washes!

I drove a 2 year old one for a while, the fenders where already rusting.

Vehicles still rusted with undercoating applied. In NJ a lot of vehicles were Ziebarted . Nowadays the manufacturers have weep holes at the bottom of the doors and fenders, they apply zinc primers which alleviates a lot of the issues. You still have to wash down the under carriage of a vehicle with a high pressure sprayer to remove salt residue, you should wash the entire car that same day.

You ain't going to find any 20+ year old vehicles here in upstate NY that aren't rusty. Most are in the junk yard before that. In an average winter it snows weekly and very often multiple days a week. The result is, you're spraying salty snow, slush and salt water into every nook and cranny almost daily for 5 months of the year. Ten year old vehicles without rust are a rarity and most will be junked because they're rotted out beyond repair before they reach 20 no matter how much you wash and wax or how well undercoated it is. The only way to avoid it is to park it in your garage and not drive it in the winter. Period. You see a 20 year old rust free vehicle here it's either been stored for the winter or lived most of it's life in one of the Southern States.

"LOL! You think Northern Tennessee doesn’t keep the damned roads covered in salt all winter? For the most part, it is unnecessary, but they still have to get rid of all that salt so they can buy more next year and not have their budget cut."


Gregintenn, for the win! Here in the NC mountains, we get a forecast of 1/2 inch snow and they dump salt all over every road. A half inch of snow will not cause traffic problems and most of it will melt of its own accord without any salt on the road. It is a government operation, the crews all get overtime pay. The more overtime they pay for "winter emergency" the bigger the budget needed for next year. The more salt they use the more they need next year.

My mechanic told me that as bad as salt is, about 12 years ago they began adding calcium chloride to the salt mix. He said that calcium chloride is twice as bad as salt ever was. He had worked on a one year old car that had rusty chunks of metal the size of a loaf of bread falling off.

Good pics - that was A LOT of work and I admire it. But, I can't love any truck enough to do that.

Cheaper than anything with 60k miles even after all of the work. They are of no use if so rusted doors cannot latch/seal properly.

Either redo one or buy a new one, same amount of$$ is spent either way. A lot of things about the newer trucks I do not like.

The brine they put on our roads can be applied 3 days before a snow event.
Including through several light rains!

If you are real darn lucky, you get on the road right after an application, and it
sprays off the tires up under the car.

Now how in thee hell does one get that washed off!
And you know where you can't get it, the dang places inclined to rust anyways.


The big 3 had gotten cars to be really rust resistant.
Lots of older cars were running around here with high miles and looking good.
Early 2000s brine came along. And suddenly it was 1978 again, only worse.
1978 didn't have brake friction surfaces breaking off the steel core due to
corrosion.