Rusty Vehicle

[jim summers]

While i understand this is basically a firearms forum i need and answer to this question.

I know with all the wisdom and knowledge here at TFF i will get a sensible response.

"Why do you see more rusty chevy trucks than you do chevy cars i just assumed it was the inferior steel they used in making trucks but then again that same steel is used in making chevy cars or is this a wrong assumption.

[todd51]

I don't know about Chevy Trucks, I had an '84 I kept for 18 years and it didn't have any rust. But I think trucks go when and where the cars won't or don't giving them more of a chance to get nicked, salted, dinged, chipped, scratched and dented all giving rust a chance to get started. I know that the worse it is the less chance I will take the car out of the garage and just get in the truck and go.

[hunter29180]

used and abused far more than the cars..ever see a car taken to and run in the mud runs?? or 22 miles off the paved roads in the desert and mountains??

[jlloyd73]

Originally Posted by hunter29180

used and abused far more than the cars..ever see a car taken to and run in the mud runs?? or 22 miles off the paved roads in the desert and mountains??

Mud and sand........then not washing it off will do it every time.

Another big one is not waxing the car regularly.

I help do a lot of restorations of old cars......you would be amazed that one car will be like new.....and the next look like crap.

[millwright]

Hi, JS !

Noticed a lot data missing from your post. Like model/year/mileage/use. Farm pickups get exposed to a hell of a lot of corrosive stuff a car never sees ! Or are you/your neighbors in the habit of using cars to haul fertilizer/feed/urea across feed lots and fields ? (J'es kiddin' ! )

Seriously, though, its more a case of use than engineering/manufacturering. I'm sure all the mfg's products see the same dip/rinse/dip/plate program for body steel. Pickups have frames - which is another source of corrosion. Most often though, IME, pickups get mud/s**t/chemicals pounded into every crevice/joint/join in the underbody blocking drain holes. Add to that whatever spills in the bed slucing down every time it rains.

IOW, if you want your pickup to keep its "showroom" appearance, don't "use" it ! Or, at least, give it a loving and careful pressure washing and rust prevention every six months or less ! >MW

[H-D]

from 1987 until the mid 90's chevy and gmc used an equipment grade primer for trucks and cars are inside garages more than trucks and are washed and waxed more often

[goofy]

Trucks are used for work, cars are used for transportation(for the most part) so a truck gets beat mud,sand, stones,heavy loads,and so on....with todays gas prices if you don't need a truck you get a car.But saying that let me say here in the finger lakes NY road salt is the biggest culprit of rust on ANYTHING........GOOFY

[ampaterry]

In 1972, we had just bought a brand new Ford F100.
The third day we had it, I drove home from second shift in my car, and there sat the truck parked beside our garden with the bed full of horse manure. There was manure over the sides, on top of the cab, on the back window. Judy was just getting out of it and I said "That's a BRAND NEW TRUCK!"
"A truck is for WORK!", she said.
"I promise not to shovel manure onto the car!"

And therein lies the difference -

[jbmid1]

Trucks are still constructed in the conventional body-on-frame method. Where the frame carries all the weight and the body just goes along for the ride. So a truck with a rusty body is still usable. For the last 30 or so years almost all passenger cars are either unibody or space-frame. In this design weight is distributed from frame members to subframe peices to some of the body parts themselves. If the weight carrying parts start to rust, the car becomes non-drivable. You don't see as many rusty cars still driving because they turn into junk.

[Blackshirts]

Yup, work. Got a car(not Chevy, Nissan) and a Chevy Silverado about the same time. The car was 2 years old(looked brand new) and the truck was brand new, only 7 miles on it. 8 years later the car still looks brand new and the truck is all scratched, a couple dented fenders, has had 5 or 6 new windshields, but still runs like new. Fortunately being in the desert we don't get much rust. Rusty or not, as long as you keep up on maintenance it will keep up with you.

[medalguy]

I had a 1976 Check PU, over 220,000 miles on it in 2002 when I finally parted with it. It did have some rust in the door panels and a little bit in the bed, but when you consider were it had been, and what it had carried, I was thoroughly pleased with it.

Keep in mind with the truck panels bolted onto the frame, there's room to flex, and flexing causes wear and allows dirt and crap to sit in there and cause havoc ranging from wear to rust. The result is inevitable, rust all over.

[hogger129]

idk about you but around me there's lots of farmers who have old trucks, some rusty, some not and they are more useful than a car

my parents used to have an '86 Toyota pickup that was totally covered with rust but never had any problems with anything other than doing the brakes once. 300,000 miles it had when my parents sold it

[300 H&H]

I am a farmer and quite guilty. I have a 92 F150 4.9 5 speed 4X4 with just under 300K on it and it's a bit rusty here and there, but is still doing the work of the farm all these years. Not to mention the many field beatings it has recieved chasing coyoties around the winter landscape. At this point in it's life it is much more usefull to me than a car would be. Still gets 20 mph on a long drive. E10 for it's entire life, original fuel injectors too! It's a good one.

Regards, Kirk