So I have a 2013 F150 with a 5.5 foot bed. It has rusted through the wheel wells. I'm considering different options on how to fix it.

Option 1 - Has anyone replaced the original bed with a 15-19 aluminum bed? I matched mine to a friends and it looks close but not a home run. I think 4 of the 6 mounting bolt holes will match up. It looks like there will be about a 1 inch wider gap between the aluminum bed and the cab. Also the bumper won't fit - will need to be modified. Finally, I am not sure how difficult the electrical will adapt.(last life of vehicle)

Option 2 - Sand grind out rust - POR 15 and cover with a fender flare. Any recommendations? (~2 - 3 year life)

Option 3 - Bring to a body shop to have it fix professionally. (~2-3 year life)

Thank you for the help!

 

The wheel well liners and flares really help if you ask me. The reason so many vehicles rust in wheel wells is the road debris thrown into the metal by the tires chips away paint and then rust comes. The plastic liners block that. You do still have to wash regularly behind the liners. My truck just turned 9 and has no rust there.

I would expect a pro job (or good DIY) to last longer than 3 years if you add the protection.

 

While wheel well liners stop the interior wheel wells from getting beat up and may prevent rust in there, they don’t do anything to prevent the ugly outer box side wheel well arch rust which I’m guessing this post is about.

That rust forms from the inside out (the top side of the wheel well, not the side protected by a liner). You can see the opening to this area if you look up from each side under the rear bumper. Salt, dirt and water constantly spray up there. If not constantly flushed out and oil coated, all the steel body trucks will start to rust there.

Fender flares only cover the rust. It still forms behind them.

I don’t think an aluminum bed would look good. The body lines are totally different.

If it were my truck, I’d look for a full southern take off bed. If your wheel well arches are that bad, I’d also think the bed rail supports are getting pretty rusty.

While I was at this, I’d also check the other common areas the steel bodied trucks rust: lower front fenders, bottom of doors (spreads to outside if not stopped), rockers, cab corners (on supercrew), bottom of tailgate (also spreads from inter bottom).

 

Thanks for the replies. I didn't think about getting one for a none rust belt area. I'll look into that. It may be the easiest solution. Does anyone have a recommendation for where to look? Favorite online junk yards?

It's frustrating - I only have 70,00 miles on it and it runs great!

Jeff

 

I know there are a bunch of sites out there that specialize in selling rust free beds from the south. You’d have to see what’s closest / who ships. I still think it would be your best bet, and maybe you could even luck out and find one the same color.

FYI, while older, the 04-08 beds will bolt on and have the same body lines as the 09-14 gen.

 

Liners and mud flaps should prevent anything else getting up there, there's no other path up when i just looked at mine - you are right however, that's where they'll rust out from, always worth making sure it's clean up there and a nice coating of something like Dynax S50 or surface shield.

 

Stixk your head up under the rear bumper at each side. I don’t think liners cover those openings completely.

My old truck was a 2008 that I had through 14 Vermont winters. Never had wheel well liners or mud flaps and that truck had zero rust.

I liked the openings being accessible from the rear bumper so I could flush them out weekly in the winter and heavily saturate them with something like fluid film every fall.

 

I'm assuming the design changed then.

 

Nope. This is the opening to the top side of the wheel well. That’s where everything is flung and it eats away until you see rust on the outside wheel arches.

While your mud flaps will stop a lot of the spray, some will still get up there since it’s open.



the design is the same as my 2008. That area needs to be constantly flushed out. The wheel wells are also open like that on my 2017.

 

There's no travel path from the wheel to that area, it's not open to stuff from the wheel - obviously it is from the back here, but i don't have wheels there

Now, i *CAN* see that if i didn't have mud flaps, it could get slowly built up over there.