Is my truck ruined? (road salt)

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Richard Hinsley

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You'll be fine. I lived in SW Colorado and they use magnesium chloride and I never had rust issues. A rare snowstorm is nothing for that truck.
 

tooloud10

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You're vastly overthinking it. This is what my winter Porsche looks like for 4-5 months per year, and it still looks like new underneath. This isn't the '70s.

C2972AF6-24CC-4BEE-A827-495A4D4AC25C_1_105_c.jpeg
 

Fireguy144

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Vehicles last for decades up in the rust belt. The biggest issue is rusty steel body panels. Not an issue with aluminum body panels.

I would just give your Raptor a good cleaning, then forget about it.

The truck will last many, many years.
Your right...steel corrode... but s I does aluminum.
 
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CraigATX

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Some of ya'll are pretty funny. :)

Seriously though, thank you for addressing my question and easing my concerns. I am someone who will overthink things like this, so the reassurance and information really helps. Like I said, I have zero experience with caring for vehicles driven on salty roads.

I ended up washing the entire truck after taking care of business earlier in the day. It took me about 8 hours.

I washed the bottom of the truck four times to try and cover everything: once with power washer only, then foam cannon and power washer again, then with handheld hose/soap sprayer to reach hard to reach places, and finally used a ryobi water broom to spray the undercarriage. (not that effective) I used a scrub brush to agitate areas where it seemed to have more build up. I still don't think it's as clean as it could be.

After everything dried, there appears to be a lot of areas with rust. However, based on the info in this thread, I assume this to be normal. While I was under there, I also noticed a piece of insulation (?) that appears to be loose. Maybe someone on here knows what it is. I'll add a link to a page with pictures below.

Rust Example:

1VrJLiR.jpg

The Truck:

4hVhUIh.jpg


All of the rust pics from the undercarriage: https://imgur.com/a/i1sllfw
 

JefferyGT

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Some of ya'll are pretty funny. :)

Seriously though, thank you for addressing my question and easing my concerns. I am someone who will overthink things like this, so the reassurance and information really helps. Like I said, I have zero experience with caring for vehicles driven on salty roads.

I ended up washing the entire truck after taking care of business earlier in the day. It took me about 8 hours.

I washed the bottom of the truck four times to try and cover everything: once with power washer only, then foam cannon and power washer again, then with handheld hose/soap sprayer to reach hard to reach places, and finally used a ryobi water broom to spray the undercarriage. (not that effective) I used a scrub brush to agitate areas where it seemed to have more build up. I still don't think it's as clean as it could be.

After everything dried, there appears to be a lot of areas with rust. However, based on the info in this thread, I assume this to be normal. While I was under there, I also noticed a piece of insulation (?) that appears to be loose. Maybe someone on here knows what it is. I'll add a link to a page with pictures below.

Rust Example:

1VrJLiR.jpg

The Truck:

4hVhUIh.jpg


All of the rust pics from the undercarriage: https://imgur.com/a/i1sllfw


I had the same surface rust issue. I used Corroseal Rust Converter. It turns to black. Still looks great.
 
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