My friend Jamie is from Chicago, but lives in the Detroit area. He also works for a steel company and regularly hangs out at junkyards, so it’s possible he’s seen more rust than any human in history. So when he sent me a recent picture of a completely rotted-out pickup truck, and I asked for more photos, he admitted that he didn’t think to, since it didn’t really seem like a big deal. The truck seemed fairly standard, he thought. But no, no it is not “fairly standard.”
“Passes Michigan inspection every time!” my friend sent me along with the picture of completely rotted-out white (and brown) Chevy Silverado.
The truck is a second-generation GMT-900 Silverado, meaning at the oldest it’s a 2007 — so it’s 17 years old. That’s hardly a spring chicken, so you might expect some amount of corrosion, maybe on the rocker panels and around the wheel wells, but you’d never expect this much rust:
Look at the rocker panels and that cab corner — they’ve gone completely Bluetooth!
And of course, that rear wheel opening — my god, where did all the metal go?
“That’s the Chevy Silverado, made with high-strength steel for high-strength dependability.”
But this truck really gets crazy at the rear, where the taillight has nothign to screw to, so it’s just taped to what’s left of the bedside. The tailgate hinge is straight-up gone, and the only thing holding the gate in place appears to be the upper latch and what looks like some kind of makeshift lower lip preventing the bottom from falling out:
Do I even want to know what’s happening on the other side of the truck? Is that the taillight that’s jutting out? Also, the bumper has a hole, and the frame/rear suspension is brown. It’s all brown, really. The whole thing is a nightmare.
Up front, there’s a fender flare that I’m guessing is there primarily to hide all the rust around the wheel.
“Random shitbox I saw at Walmart today,” my friend Jamie wrote to me, before saying that, even though this is the worst GMT-900 he’s seen, it’s fairly standard to see vehicles like this in Michigan.
“It’s certainly nothing too interesting,” he said. “I was leaving Walmart outside of Lansing when I did a double-take and had to go back for a picture…Someone was sitting in it having lunch. They looked cozy in the sunshine.”
To prove that this isn’t an anomaly, here are some other trucks Jamie has seen driving around — this third-gen Ram 1500 (probably a 2003-2005) can be found around Ann Arbor:
You see a lot of the same issues that the Silverado has; a rusted-through rear bumper, disintegrated metal around the rear wheel well, the bottom part of the tailgate evaporated into nothingness.
And here’s a 2003-2005-ish Chevy Silverado that Jamie saw at a steel mill:
Wowzers. The rocker panel is gone, and once again, it looks like the rear tire had TNT in it and blew up that whole rear wheel-opening.
All the rusty spots share a common theme: They trap dirt, salt, and moisture. Those rocker panels let in the grime and trap it; the rear wheels shoot up wet filth, which sticks to the back side of the rear bumper and to the inside of those wheel wells, rotting them out; t bed tends to trap moisture and leaves, and that rests against the bottom of that tailgate, which itself can often trap dirt and water inside itself. Anytime you have moist, dirty, salty filth sitting against metal for an extended period of time, you can expect your vehicle to undergo a weight-savings program.
That all these vehicles are legal to drive in Michigan is amazing, though I suppose as long as those frames are solid, and nothing flies off, I’m totally cool with them continuing their miserable lives losing the battle to The Tin Worm.
As bad as these are, none will ever defeat the Detroit Diplomat as The Official Car of Michigan.
[Note: This is no disrespect to those who drive these trucks. Keeping an old workhorse on the road is a hard thing to do, and as someone who has had to do it for years in Michigan, I respect it. And not everyone can afford a newer truck. Still, it’s wild to see machines that have become so toasty in such a short period. -DT].
Grew up in the Chicago area, but lived in NC/SC for the last 25 years so I had forgotten what rust was until we moved to Pittsburgh for a few years. I honestly thought rust was a thing of the past.
Most of the time when I see trucks like that in Florida. If they’re not from up north, it’s because they’re used by a pool maintenance company. Chlorine water destroys metal like nobody’s business.
Some years ago, we took our old Subaru Forester on a road trip down to Florida. While we were visiting, it threw a check engine light (of course…) and we took it to a shop to get the code read.
The mechanic was aghast at the surface rust on some of the suspension components, and gave us his opinion that the car was basically ready for the junkyard.
I informed him that while (being a Subaru) it was indeed a POS, at 150k it was still a decent car for Canada and probably still worth 10-15k.
He was absolutely baffled.
Where I used to live in Tampa, there was a synagogue close to me and their vehicles were from either Quebec or Ontario…. My god, those cars were so rusted out it was scary. I should start a business exporting used Florida cars to Canada. I’m sure they’d love late model cars with no rust issues. :-p
California only has emissions testing, but, with no rust, the drivetrain generally dies before anything else gets really bad. I have a 2000 Subaru, almost 250k miles, on it’s second engine, but no real rust anywhere (aside from where the bondo on the tailgate is cracking, and that’s just surface rust.
Am in southern Ontario and none of these look surprisingly rusty to me. In fact, if you don’t undercoat your vehicle or keep in inside a garage in the winter, these are pretty much expected amounts for a 20-ish year old pickup. People will foam-and-bondo something like this up, paint the bottom third black, and put it up for sale for 7500 (*I know what I have!!*)
Yeah these are definitely safer for the American public than a new Euro of Chinese compact EV. There’s no way we could let those into the country because they are dangerous!
I live in the same area. this is why I tell people to get their cars undercoated in addition to regular washes.
those trucks are very normal around here.
you’re gonna want that TruCoat
It comes like that from the factory; there’s nothing I can do here.
How in the world could that pass a vehicle safety inspection?
It passes 100% of the tests they don’t give it.
so why even have the charade of testing? if your taillight it taped to your truck, you shouldn’t be on the roads, lol.
Michigan has no testing for emissions or safety. There is an early 2000’s Taurus I see on the regular driving around with no outer door skin on drivers side.
Catalytic converter get stolen? If you’re classy you slap in a straight pipe, if you’re cheap you just run it as is.
Seems like that might be a good idea over there.
There is no charade. Michigan will give you plates for anything that moves under its own power. Or could.
There’s no charade, not once has a Michigan official laid eyes on any car I’ve ever registered here. Not when I purchased them, nor when I renewed the registrations, and certainly not when I sold them. For all they know, I’ve attached chainsaws to the bumpers, swapped my headlights and taillights, and run my car on a mix of leaded gas and nitrous exhausted through an asbestos-powder-filled muffler (you just can’t match the acoustic qualities of mesothelioma), and they do not have the tiniest interest in finding out.
Ah yes, the Wayne Gretzky model of vehicular inspections…
It couldn’t.
I hear Lancias came from the factory like this.
this article is DT p0rn. All that iron oxide, on barely legal vehicles.
Can’t believe these are legal buti would drive them before buying a $60,000 new pick up. Maybe;
1. Boat owners backing down to launch boats on those back end cheese graters
2. 4 wheeling tossing up rocks takes out the paint mud and water starts the rust.
Once started rust does proceed quickly.
Nope, just good ‘ol Michigan.
But Lake Michigan, maybe that is why. Like Minnesota and all those damn puddles they call lakes.
Even if you never get anywhere near a lake in MI, your car is going to swiss-cheese itself. I’m a CA native and went to college at U-M Ann Arbor. The state of even newish cars in that climate was eye opening.
Hey these vehicles are showing much more wear in the rear than front. If all things were equal it would be rusty equal front and back. With my experience as a oxide anthropologist, watched every episode of Bones, the additional rust in the rear is a symptom of more oxide activity in the rear. So unless my decades of watching TV is wrong I still I sist the trucks with heavier backend rust are boat related.
Or, since you drive forward, all the water/dirt/snow/salty moisture usually lands near the back of the vehicle
Go drive on a salty or rainy day and see where your car looks dirtier
Makes you wonder if those trucks, at some point in their lives, did salting/plow duty. I can always tell which municipal trucks have hauled salt, because the bottoms of their tailgates are rusted away even if the rest of the truck looks okay.
No plowing is front duty so the front rusts quicker. Plowing is not salt related so the rust would not be as bad.
Around here a lot of the municipal vehicles do double duty, with plows up front and salt spreaders out back, so that’s what I had in my head.
Yes you make a good point. I won’t disagree except to say 3 pickups in a parking lot unlikely.
Good point, must not have read that part of the article carefully enough!
Don’t feel bad I do ot all the time. The responses are hilarious.
I wonder how much of this is because fender liners are not standard on trucks. Which is stupid IMHO. The only places I have rust spots on my 9 year old truck with liners are the leading edges of steel panels that have been chipped by stones. How bad would it be without fender liners, where basically the entire underside of the body panel is constantly being chipped by debris thrown from the tires?
Fender liners are not standard on trucks? Since when? My old 90s pickups all came from the factory with fender liners.
Crazy, right? My Dad’s F-150 didn’t have them and they’re a $220 option on the Rams.
I unfortunately have personal experience with extreme rot on mid-aughts GM products.
My wife was given a brand new Chevy Cobalt for her 16th birthday back in 2005. She was raised in a family that treated cars as disposable items, and therefore never ever washed them. We also just so happen to live about 45 minutes outside of Chicago along Lake Michigan where we get HEAVY amounts of road salt and snow.
A few years later when she went away to college she didn’t take her car with her due to living on campus. Her dad (my FIL) who is a steel worker decided to drive her little Cobalt to the steel mill every day instead of the brand new truck he had at the time. If you have ever been near a steel mill, you will know that this is the worst possible place you could ever bring a car you care about.
Well, years later after we were married and living together I had obviously taken over the duties of maintaining this poor little car. By 2018, the rockers were completely gone, and every maintenance item I had to do on the car always resulted in multiple other parts being replaced due to the extreme level of corrosion. The Cobalt was eventually put out of its misery when the subframe completely collapsed pulling out of the driveway. The thought of that happening while my wife was behind the wheel still haunts me.
I on the other hand was raised in a family of avid car washers during the winter, and was brought up to take great care of my cars, which I have since instilled in my wife with her car as well. In fact, I bought her car (a 2010 Forester) from a dealer in Florida specifically because it was spotless and rust free (as well as a killer price with a clean carfax and full dealership provided maintenance history).
Long story short, if you live in the midwest; wash your shit!
And your cars as well. Both washings will prevent undesirable brown stains.
Yeah, my ex was from Indiana and when she moved to Florida, she brought her trusty 90’s model Corolla. Whenever I tried to fix anything on that car, it would break from the rust. I go to jack up the car at a jacking point, the jack went RIGHT THROUGH IT. You’re working on brakes? The fuck you are as the lines snap off. Florida may destroy the clearcoat of a car but at least they do not rust to death.
This is exactly what it was like to work on that Cobalt. I’ve always been a little paranoid when it comes to washing my cars in the winter (like every time they freshly salt the roads I go spray it off), but that car made me even worse. Along with frequent washes, I fluid film our cars now as well.
I’ve had vehicles I’ve washed and more that I’ve never washed. The difference in time before corrosion takes them is negligible when comparing other cars of a similar make, model and year on the road. Even waxing them doesn’t seem to make much difference at all, other than making you aware of the little surface rust spots you need to touch up.
The biggest rot is always from the inside of the panels. Washing doesn’t do enough for that.
The two biggest factors I’ve found are if you live and travel on dirt roads or not, and if you keep your car in a garage.
The preventive that matters most is early application of lanolin-based protectant on the inside of the body panels. Washing and waxing are mainly aesthetic practices that make you feel like you’re doing something good for your car.
Maybe if you washed the car every single day in the winter, it might make a noticeable difference, but nobody has the time and money for that.
I haven’t! Steel mills aren’t common here, so I gotta ask: Why?
I’m not a steel worker, but the way my father in law explained it to me was that the ground is covered in little oxidized steel particles all around the mill, and those stick to the underside of your car and accelerate the rust because the ground is literally covered in rust. He’s said many times over the years that a lot of the people that work at the mills have a specific throw-away car that they drive there. Our next door neighbor in our subdivision is a mill guy as well and has a completely rotted out Chevy Cruze that he only drives to and from work.
Ooh, the Cybertruck loose-steel problem. That makes sense.
Haha yep! Park a Cybertruck around a mill, and I’d wager you’d need an industrial supply of Bar Keeper’s Friend on hand.
And this is why you Midwesterners should drive 1000 miles to buy a used or classic car. Seriously, how much rust repair can you do in 2 days and $200?
This is what I did. My wife recently needed a new car BECAUSE OF MIDWESTERN RUST (see my comment for the story) and I bought a pristine 2010 Forester from Florida solely to avoid midwestern rot. Not only is the car spotless underneath, but I saved money doing this. These cars command lower prices down there where the awd isn’t needed, so I was able to buy a car in Miami, and drive it back to the Chicago suburbs for less.
One of my good friends wanted a non-rusted XJ Cherokee and did a similar thing a few years back with a truck he found in Arizona.
I have every intention of doing another fly & drive road trip for every new project car I buy. I learned the hard way, working on old British sports cars. Or drive out and bring a return driver with me.
The difference between buying something stored behind a barn in Michigan and stored behind a barn outside the rust belt is huge.
It’s a good plan for daily drivers, too, but sometimes the need for a car doesn’t synchronize with the ability to travel.
I grew up 3 hours north of Detroit and while I don’t think the car washes use brine, they were rather rare in rural areas and they typically aren’t open when it gets down below 20F. On that point, it is definitely warmer than it was 50 years ago when I lived there.
None of this explains these pics though.. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar stuff across the rust belt in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, etc.
Not sure about Ohio but Pennsylvania does have a stricter, but not strict inspection requirement that does keep it from this bad. But without it I would expect the same.
I see stuff like this in Wisconsin pretty frequently. In Milwaukee County we have emissions testing but I don’t think they care about rust, or any safety issues for that matter. They don’t check to see if your lights or wipers or whatever work or anything like that.
Geez, those are worse than my nearly 25-year-old Dodge pickup — that spent most of its life in New Hampshire, where the road salt is every bit as bad.
My brother wonders why I wash and wax my vehicles on a regular basis. This is why. I had a ’97 Dakota for 9 years and ran up over 180,000 miles on it. Didn’t have any rust on it at all when I finally traded it in. The dealer who took it in was shocked by how good it looked. “I’ve seen trucks come in with 30,000 miles on them that didn’t look this good”. He actually apologized for the trade-in offer, but I still got more out of it than I expected.
If you want to see how to work on things like this – be sure to subscribe to the South Main Auto channel on YT. Guy has all sorts of tips on how to handle them – plus he’s hilarious
I see plenty of trucks like that in Illinois as well, also home to plenty of road salt and no inspections. I think the problem with trucks is two-fold. First, it’s the way people treat them, which is like absolute garbage. They beat the ever-loving shit out of them, and they never ever wash them. Also, even a complete shitbox of a truck like that still has SOME value, because it can do a job. A car in a state like that is worth about tree-fiddy, and so they usually get junked. Any truck that runs and drives is worth a minimum of a grand, no matter how big of a rusty pile of shit it is.
Trucks CAN be taken care of. I have owned a 2006 GMC Sierra from new in the rust belt, and it has spent exactly one night in a garage. I had to have the rocker panels redone due to rust a few years ago, but it’s still a pretty clean truck, and I credit the fact that in the winter, when it stays above freezing for a couple of days, I give it an underbody wash to get the crap off of it.
I wish I had known about underbody films when I bought it, but I didn’t. When I had the rockers redone, I started fluid filming it every fall.
I know the Sierra and Silverado are quite possibly one of the best examples of badge engineering, but can we at least call the first example by the nameplate that it’s wearing?
David, Clearly you missed the 70’s. Back then every other salty city car looked this way after 7 years. Fiats did it in just 3. 🙂
Eventually Zinc put Ziebart out of busines.
Jesus… do car washes in Michigan use desalination brine instead of freshwater?
While I hate the material properties of aluminum the corrosion resistance makes for a great metal, especially for the bodies of new BOF vehicles. When hardly anyone pulls dents anymore and would rather replace body panels aluminum body panels make a lot more sense. Minimal corrosion so more recyclable material, abundance of aluminum, corrosion resistance (obviously), more dent resistant (due to the rigidity of aluminum, if you scratch the paint (like in a truck bed, it won’t rust there), etc.
If Ford made a damn 2 Door Lightning or a manual transmission for the F-150 that one could have in a 2 Door variant I’d buy several of them.
Also I want there to be more bare aluminum automobiles. I much prefer bare aluminum to painted aluminum.
There’s nothing prettier that a classic, polished, bare aluminum Cessna!
Polished aluminum planes definitely look better than painted ones.
I’d love to see the equivalent age/duty cycles versions of these trucks from manufacturers other than the Big 3. Very curious how much of this is Michigan and how much it is the manufacturers.
The domestics generally have the *best* rust resistance. Japanese cars/trucks of this age are usually dust by this point.
Just look into the Toyota truck frame rusting recalls… Those were all less than 20 years old. In comparison, all three trucks here appear to have a fairly consistent gap to to bottom between the bed and cab, so not too bad.
First couple days of cold weather here in MI always results in the worst of the worst littering the side of the highways when some combo of neglected maintenance, failed battery, ancient tires or hardened broken belts strands them due to the change in temperature. With no inspections to weed them out, environmental conditions will.
Meh, wait 20 years and Michigan won’t get snow anymore (no more salt needed). Michigan will then have the climate of Tennessee.
And people think that’s a bad thing. I bet Noone moves to Detroit for the weather.
Yep! I reside in Michigan and today, February 27th, 2024 is was 73F!!! (◑○◑)
The previous high temp record for February 27th was set in 1976 and it was 63F. crazy!!
Yea, it was crazy. We had a cook out in the back yard in short sleeves… In February!
Ha! I BBQ grilled some Sweet Italian sausages for dinner.
Yeeeeeeah…I live in Texas and high-80s F in February has gone from a fun novelty to “ugh, I don’t want to think about later this year, I hate this, and please for the love of all things holy, get me the hell out of here.”
I spent 2 weeks vacation in the DFW area in the month of July and it was oppressively hot and humid! You have my sympathies.
so bad
SO bad