Gen 1 Raptor Rehab 4 - Rust Treatment 

Yeah, this is rusty for the west coast. Not bad at all and One of the reason I was OK getting the truck. I’ve seen some of those rusty trucks you guys get in the rust belt.

Rust is your biggest concern with a Gen1. If there is rust on the pinch welds there may be rust inside the cab that you can’t see. The cab is not painted or treated on the inside. Under the cab, there are plastic cab seals to keep moisture out. As the truck ages those seals fail. If they fail and moisture gets in, the can rusty from the inside out and it’s an expensive repair. Check the cab seals before you buy. If they have failed, don’t buy. There will be a ton more hidden rust that will be a problem later

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad Appreciate the feedback. I found one that only has 6 inches of pinch weld rust that I might buy instead. IT's a 2014 vs a 2011 and it has no penetrating rust except for that small portion of the pinch weld, which I can control. The other one I mentioned above is completely rusted across all rocker panels. I think it's better to spend the extra 3k for one that doesn't have a rust issue like that.

Agreed

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad So the raptor I'm looking at is a SCAB in blue with the top option package - needs the shocks rebuilt, but mostly rust free. He's asking 32k at 100k miles, 1 owner. Seems like a good price - your thoughts?

I always go by KBB and nada for values. Raptor prices fluctuate a lot and they have been on the high side for the last 2 years. So take that into consideration and plan your costs for the rebuild. Keeping in mind that if the shocks have rust, your rebuild costs can go up. Shops like forged offroad have good exchange programs for that and would be my first choice

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When the cab seals fail, water gets trapped in that gap below the cab. You need to look inside that gap to make sure things are good. The rust develops from the inside. By the time you see it on the outside it’s too late. So confirm there is nothing. Maybe ass some paint in there or some kind of rust protection before covering them back up again.

Thanks

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad question for you, why not apply maybe a rhino liner or line-x to those high abuse areas?

I’m not a fan of those coatings on the frame or under the cab. With the off-roading we do here in SoCal it will eventually get rubbed or sand blasted off. Yes a liner coating will last longer. But once it start failing it will completely peal off and in worst cases hold moisture. And that does not even account for the cost and extra work to install. In the areas we treated, the sand blasting of the desert is going to destroy any paint or liner anyway so I would rather do something that is easy and cheap to repair.

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad makes sense.

What do you mean?

I mean to say I think it’s green lime green 😃

We knew buying a rust belt truck it was a risk and we were ready for it. More surprised it wasn’t worse.

YeH, my hands are not what they were when I was younger and that was too much of a risk for me. I know it can work mush quicker but it’s also way more sketchy. So I stuck with the cordless drill. If it got too bad, I would have invested in a sand blaster first

We wanted a project. And it’s been very therapeutic working on this truck.

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Yep. Basically guaranteed. How were the cab corners and cab seals?

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad theres rust but hasnt gone through. Ive wired brushed it and am por15 it. The skid plates were about as bad as yours if not worse, so ill be replacing those soon. Shocks are completely corroded and probably arent salvageable.

We got a video coming up on some great skid plates. We already posted them up on IG, but have a whole video dedicated on them. DM me on IG or shoot me an email and I’ll send you details on them and how to get them from Offroad Republic.

Thanks man. We tackle what we can. We learned a lot from our last 2 offroad trucks.

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoadthanks to you guys made me love the raptors again

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So far we’ve gotten lucky. Mainly surface rust. Though the intercooler brackets did put in a fight

Thanks man

Have not found any good ones myself. I’m going to be replacing mine here soon so once I find some, I’ll post them up and do a dedicated video

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad Thanks for the reply I look forward to the video. Hope to do some trails here in the south of France.

Oh wow man, how is it driving a raptor in Europe

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad Well petrol is $2 a liter and my truck seems to be getting an amazing 9mpg. The roads are small and spare parts impossible to find. Sooo... i fucking love it. My truck is a beast and it's the most awesome thing I've ever owned, they are going to have to bury me in that thing :)

🤣🤣 I know the feeling.

It was a matter of cost. To get a decent sand blaster would have been a few hundreds. So had to weight our options. Spend the money or just tough it out an extra hour. Since it was just that front hardware that was bad, we elected to just tough it out rather than have another expensive tool in the garage I only use once.

Thanks

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad You guys are in the Lake Elsinore area? I’d like to check into your project truck sometime bud

Best way is Tacos and trucks meetups. First Tuesday of every month.

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad No idea what that is but sounds like fun.

A local Guy runs the truck meets using Instagram SoCal tacos and trucks.

If you watched the beginning of the video, you would see why.

@@KeepItDirtyOffRoad Oh! was it because it was from Ohio?

Yeah. Ohio is still part of the rust belt and why this truck has soo much rust