On Mon, 8 May 2006, David Gersic wrote:
> is there anything specific I should look out
> for? Any common rust sites I need to check out? The body looks good from the
> top, but I haven't crawled under it yet to see what it looks like from below.
> Being in the rust belt, rust tends to be what kills my cars and trucks.
Welcome to the list! I know you already bought the truck, but just for
completeness' sake I figured I'd chime in.
As for common wear points, check the ball joints for sure, also the front
rotors, and if you've got AC check the condensor mounts (mine have all
snapped off, and I think the condensor rattling around between the bumper
and radiator is at fault for my system not keeping pressure).
My Dakota is rusting at the pinch weld on the drivers' side extended cab,
about from the back edge of the door all the way back. That pinch weld
has had rust in it for quite some time and this past fall a small hole
appeared just to the outside of the pinch on the outer panel. The flat
panels behind the headlights are also rusted through on both driver and
passenger sides. With the stock fender liners these areas will be
well-hidden, with my trimmed fender liners they're very obvious. The
passenger side started first, the paint has been flaking off for a while
and the hole appeared probably 2 years ago. It hasn't gotten much worse.
The driver's side which was fine 2 years ago has caught up.
My frame is in great shape as is the rest of the body. I have some
surface rust showing up under the hood on the inner fenders and firewall
as well, but nothing of note yet.
-- +-- Mike Maskalans ---------------- Rochester, NY ----------+ | '98 Dakota CC, SAS on 40s '84 RamCharger 4x4, plow truck | | '02 Jetta TDI 5sp, daily '97 Intrepid, not on the road | +-------------------- <http://mike.tepidcola.com/trucks/> --+. . .------------------------------------------------------------------. | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! | | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net | `------------------------------------------------------------------'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 01 2006 - 09:31:34 EDT