Lets's talk Corrosion, a.k.a. Rust!

Here's my CO-SD-CO 98 1500 in 2018.



I primed and painted over bare shiny metal.

 

In the western washington, they dont use road salt. They use sand and somtimes chemical de-icer but thats about it.
My truck has a fist sized dent in the rear lower corner of the bed that is bare metal and has been for at least ten years.
It hasnt even surface rusted yet.
Unless you live out near the ocean, cars just dont rust here.
Part of that is that we spend about 8 months out of the year driving through rain water.
Imagine if every trip you took was like driving inside of your dishwasher.
Thats what its like here.
The only thing that kills cars in the PNW is parking them under a pine tree.
Pine needles will find there way into every gasket and seal you have and sponge up all the water and then rot.
We dont get frame rot, we get back windows that blow out on the freeway because there is nothing left under the seal.
Even then, its gotta be a pretty damn old car for that to happen

 

**DAMN something i never thought about or realized that happens-the part about back windows blowing out!!!! being from ohio our shit rust away long before that would ever happen. ive never heard of that but i can see how it would happen!!

 

I was in the Mt Baker area a few years ago, I was absolutely amazed at how many old vehicles i saw sitting around that weren't rusted out.

 

The area I live in is messy, and it gets slightly worse. Many people that live by Lake Michigan and other large bodies of water get "lake effect snow." Basically the wind will pick up water vapor like a coastal town and dump high quantities of snow overnight. Sometimes it's light and fluffy, and each snowflake is an octuple-size cluster and offers very poor travel visibility. Not the worst thing ever, but contributes to that much more precipitation and thus more salt.

I don't plan on buying any more GMT400's for the rest of my life (unless I get a smokin' deal, haven't found an opportunity yet). All of them have gifted rust in the eyes...BUT! - Between galvanizing, paint, primers, whatever, GMT400's held up the longest to the test. I'm amazed how many are still on the roads here, even in seemingly bad shape.

There's trucks out by me that will be 4-6 years old and rusted through the bedsides. Local dealers will literally buy fender flares and stick them on a stock rotted truck and slightly mark up the price like it's upgraded option. $21,000 for rust bubbles ready to pop? Me thinks not.

Can't help but feel bad for those still making huge payments on a truck and it's crumbling in your driveway. It's not like it's affordable to go buy a new one every 3 years, especially for your average Joe or your elder that doesn't have the gusto for wrenching anymore.

 

LMAO! That's hilarious on the fender flares! That photo I posted on post #4 did have the largest fender flares they make...I thought it did look kinda goofy since it wasn't lifted and had stock tires, but now I get it!

 

I'm starting to see K2XX trucks with rusting bedsides around here now. I can only imaging what these thin new trucks will look like when they are as old as my truck!

 

I live on an Island in the Atlantic in Eastern Canada. The roads are salted heavily in winter and the air is salty. We had wind chimes on the back of our house. One day I noticed they didn't chime anymore. I found the chimes on the ground- the metal chain had rotted thru from the salt air! I have no idea how my 94 Chevy 3500 isn't dust. While the rockers have holes, the cab corners and mounts etc are good.

 

There is a guy that goes to my college that bought a 2012 Silvy that has roughly 170k miles on it. The wheel wells are already rotten. It's only 8 years old!! Me and him had to replace the fuel pump in it because one of the lines rusted out on the top of the pump. When I got my 98 back in 2014, it had 134k miles but only the cab corners and some of the rockers were rotten, but it was 16 years old, double the age of his truck.

 

That's the new efficient metal there coming out with lol. Gm cant make radios, bumpers, engines, or trannys with out class action lawsuits. I'm sorry but somebody needs to be fired and go back to school