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You all fail to nail the true problem.

It's the crap your states are putting on the road that is actively destroying your vehicles.

I have an 05 Ram that gets driven daily, year round with zero rust.

Why? Because they do not use chemical on the roads around here.

The state has been destroying your vehicles for decades and y'all continue to blame the manufacturers.

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True, but you have mild winters normally in Texas.

A little snow and ice like this year and you have massive fender benders down there because no one is used to driving on the stuff.

Without all the crap that they put on the roads up here during the winter none of the snow and ice would melt anytime before spring.

My cure for it is don't leave the house during winter.

Not everyone can do that though.

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At one point you could blame operator error on the quantity of seam sealer that was applied to the area above the rear wheel wells.
It was applied strictly by the operator on the joint before the inner and outer bed sides were spot welded together at the marriage operation.
I did that job a few times. Once you got the hang of it, it was far from the worst job in metal shop.

The fact that the seam sealer was applied prior to spot welding may be why it looks more like foam than seam sealer, the spot welding process probably boiled it from the heat of the welding process.
It wasn't a foam when it was applied to the bed sides sheetmetal parts.

When they retooled for the 2002 body style they completely redid the metal shop and automated more of the process, whether that process was automated I can't say since I was in the chassis dept by them.

They spent $200 million to redo the metal shop for 2002 and the closed it all and tore everything down 7 years later.

Go figure.

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Quote:

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At one point you could blame operator error on the quantity of seam sealer that was applied to the area above the rear wheel wells.
It was applied strictly by the operator on the joint before the inner and outer bed sides were spot welded together at the marriage operation.
I did that job a few times. Once you got the hang of it, it was far from the worst job in metal shop.

The fact that the seam sealer was applied prior to spot welding may be why it looks more like foam than seam sealer, the spot welding process probably boiled it from the heat of the welding process.
It wasn't a foam when it was applied to the bed sides sheetmetal parts.

When they retooled for the 2002 body style they completely redid the metal shop and automated more of the process, whether that process was automated I can't say since I was in the chassis dept by them.

They spent $200 million to redo the metal shop for 2002 and the closed it all and tore everything down 7 years later.

Go figure.

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Thanks for clarifying the process. The stuff does feel more like foam than seam sealer to me. Maybe the welding process is what makes it seem so inconsistant in amount and effectiveness.
Dallas

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Quote:

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Quote:

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You all fail to nail the true problem.

It's the crap your states are putting on the road that is actively destroying your vehicles.

I have an 05 Ram that gets driven daily, year round with zero rust.

Why? Because they do not use chemical on the roads around here.

The state has been destroying your vehicles for decades and y'all continue to blame the manufacturers.

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True, but you have mild winters normally in Texas.

A little snow and ice like this year and you have massive fender benders down there because no one is used to driving on the stuff.

Without all the crap that they put on the roads up here during the winter none of the snow and ice would melt anytime before spring.

My cure for it is don't leave the house during winter.

Not everyone can do that though.

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