CtCarl

I noticed a bunch of tiny pinpricks (and a small bubble or two) under the paint at the top of the rear wheel wells on my '09 XL. Needless to say, I was amazed to discover (like many, many F150 owners before me) that not only does Ford leave the gap between the inner and outer lip open, they fill it with foam, presumably for sound insulating purposes.

And of course when I probed the foam, it was damp.

So, even though you need to step up from the base model to get the "stuck/ejected/broken spark plug and wonky cam phaser" package, hats off to Ford for offering bed rust magnets at no extra charge even on an XL.

Anyway, to the issue at hand: I'd like to remove the foam, clean the inside as well as I can, spray some POR15 in there and add some fender flares.

Here's my question, had anyone ever tried to remove the foam? Is it a pad I can just pull out, or is it glued or secured in some way? If it's going to tear out in little pieces and left much of itself behind, I won't be able to clean very well and it probably wouldn't make sense to apply the POR15.

Many thanks! Carl

mcso

Had the same issue with 09. I removed did what you suggested but was worried what it would be in 3 years. I did not remove the foam but I did trade up to a 2016