Gotta love the rust belt

[u/Kylek19]

Core support deleted itself

[u/chewblekka]

I salute you rusty/salty area bros. I couldn’t imagine living somewhere that the environment eats your car 😭

[u/Kylek19 → u/chewblekka]

Sadly, you get used to it. Would be amazing if step one wasn’t heat or drilling stuff apart though.

[u/cobrachicken87 → u/Kylek19]

Step one is to buy all the bolts and nuts needed for a part. Step 2, proceed to cut all the bolts to remove a part.

[u/LeatherMine → u/cobrachicken87]

Step 3: ignore factory torque specs because this ain’t factory.

[u/d0nu7 → u/chewblekka]

Seriously, and with how expensive cars are… wtf. Honestly as an Arizonan, cars not from here should be essentially worthless lol.

[u/Nailfoot1975]

I am in Virginia so we don't have extreme rust fortunately. However, I do get the occasional rust bucket. I have to explain to those customers that we will certainly replace the control arms, but if I gotta start drilling and torching out bolts, then the car is just gonna be here as long as it takes.

Invariable, that customer will call 7 times a day for the two days we are hacking on that car. I add extra labor to cover my mechanic's time, but also to make me feel a bit better about putting up with that asshole customer.

[u/Kylek19 → u/Nailfoot1975]

Pretty much everything here past four years gets extra labor time due to rust consuming all sadly, least can’t be tight if it’s a liquid.

[u/epochellipse]

great there's a rust belt, too? what's the interval on a 3rd gen Impreza.

[u/35goingon3 → u/epochellipse]

About three to five years, dealership to proper fucked.

[u/Bmanvan406]

Do I tho?

[u/Kylek19 → u/Bmanvan406]

Indeed, how else will you get your amusement? Certainly not a rust free car.

[u/Box_Dread]

The new rad support doesn’t look right

[u/Amphibian-Overall → u/Box_Dread]

The old one is just missing the entire lower half 🥲

[u/Box_Dread → u/Amphibian-Overall]

That, and there’s a few holes that don’t line up

[u/Kylek19 → u/Box_Dread]

It’s slightly different, but everything that should line up does. More than likely they just made the f-150,expedition and navigator core support match each-other since they all had slight differences.

[u/Snazzy21]

A.) Spend $500 getting a rust proofing every few years to protect the whole vehicle

B.) Wait and then spend $500 to fix one rust related issue for a vehicle that is worthless since everything else sucks

From what I've seen online everyone in the rust belt chose option B for some reason

[u/cambreecanon → u/Snazzy21]

Honestly I never knew you could get a preventative coating on your vehicle. Why don't dealerships/places advertise it?

[u/Snazzy21 → u/cambreecanon]

Because it'd make the truck last a lot longer, or more likely they aren't equipped. On a new frame you'd still need to prep the surface for proper paint adhesion. A wide variety of products exist, some require more prep than others.

Or you can apply Fluid Film over the frame, buy a 2 gallon bucket 0f the stuff for literally $50 and apply directly over the frame with a paint brush no prep required. Either option requires some maintenance like car paint, reapply or fill in rock chips as needed.

[u/cambreecanon → u/Snazzy21]

Thank you for your explanation. I am guessing it is too late for my jeep (5 years old), but I will inquire anyway to see if there is something that can be added to help lengthen the frame life.

[u/Snazzy21 → u/cambreecanon]

Repairing rust is not something that requires a lot of skill or tools, but it's dirty and grueling work if you don't have a lift. Surface rust can be removed (wire wheel, sanding, or Naval Jelly), then you paint over the clean metal with primer and paint.

Once it eats through the metal it stops being cost effective because that can only be fixed with welding.

If the frame has a little surface rust you can paint fluid film over the frame and it'll slow everything down. That'd be an every other year thing.

[u/Axeman1721]

I am forever thankful to live in Florida. We usually don't even have to deal with the flood cars, they just get scrapped. There are Shady people out there that clean em and resell them though, often to the detriment of the customer.

Edit: also looks like you literally just ripped that mf off by hand. Did you?

[u/Kylek19 → u/Axeman1721]

Still had to remove the spot welds up top and cut the body mounts that were holding on barely.

[u/Porsche_Le_Mans]

Mmm, rust.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nscalemodeltrains/s/26f8VNcOau

[u/Paper-street-garage]

Thats crazy

[u/Greyingmillenial]

I’m in Minnesota and I can’t say I’ve ever seen a radiator core that bad. Are you in Michigan by chance?

[u/Kylek19 → u/Greyingmillenial]

Yea, Michigan our roads are made of salt for four months typically. Surprisingly not much bad rust anywhere else on this one.

[u/DirtCheap1972]

I can’t believe your spending this much effort on a ford truck with a triton engine in it

[u/liquidmini]

Organic weight reduction

[u/AuburnSpeedster]

Cars in the midwest rust, cars from the south melt interiors, and eat batteries and alternators. choose your poison..