I am currently looking at buying a 2001 f150 7700 with 82000 miles. I found this problem when looking at the truck. It's on the passenger side in the bottom by the door hinges. The zoomed in picture is the edge of the plastic kick piece on the passenger side. 3" down the black plastic piece it looks solid. Just wondering how hard it would be to fix and has anyone else run into rust like this?

 

You can only stop rust by cutting it out. They make replacement metal parts, not sure if for that area, check out LMC trucks. Big thing is you have to either need to be very good at welding or know somebody that is. I have read that it is normal for them to rust there.

 

Thanks. Do you think I could take the door off it's hinges? I have done welding like this on a '86 Toyota pickup but it was farther down the sill ( best word I know to describe it)

 

I had this same problem, i'm kind of a redneck so i filled up the hole with "Great Stuff Foam" shaved it down, sanded it round, put bondo over it and spray painted it to match the color. looks great from 10 ft away. Thats why I call her "the old ten footer"

 

Thanks for the responses. I could not remember "rocker panel" for the life of me when I was posting haha.

 

Has the truck been in a wreck?

 

You have missing metal and it looks like someone tried to paint over it to hide the rust. Take a screwdriver and "sound" the area around the rust by poking it sharply to see if it goes through.

Welding isn't the hard part, its fitting the patch and the body work and painting afterward.

Unless this rust is very localized and the truck is a very good deal, I would walk away.

 

Chances are if the passenger side is that bad, the driverside is probably on it's way too. You can probably poke your finger through it. They rust from the inside out, so even though it looks clean, chances are it's rusted too bcuz the passenger side is pretty bad.

 

The doors are actually pretty easy to take off. Take the inner panel off,unhook everything,fish the wires out through the hole, and unbolt the hinges.
I held my doors while my wife unbolted them.

I bought mine knowing the rockers were rusted out and would need replaced. Just make sure you adjust the price accordingly.

 

Thanks to all the posts. I ended up walking, something just seemed shady about the dealer and how they were pushing the truck