Pilot house inner fender / front clip inquiry

[dcotant]

Anyone ever fabricate a panel to protect the front grill piece and structural elements from wheel splatter? The few trucks I have worked on had extensive rust in this area in addition to corrosion to the headlight buckets and turn signals not to mention the "butterfly" structural support. Was thinking if there was like an ABS panel in there to prevent the splatter from going forward of the seam between fenders and grill piece might help with that. Though it is true the trucks I have worked on are in the "Salt Mine of the Rust Belt". I know Western and Southern trucks probably don't have these problems. I want to drive my truck year round so interested in protecting these assets.

[Tooljunkie]

I wont drive mine in the salt. Giving my truck a salt bath to ne seems like a step backwards after all this work. 
A panel may prevent stone chips in the paint underside, but my concern would be trapping the salty wet sand. And then no way to wash it out after. I did give the underside a good coat of paint,but that will only keep rust at bay for a few years. Lots of gravel roads here with calcium chloride,that crap sticks to everything,and attracts moisture. 

[billrigsby]

 

I plan on a good spray of under-coating in those badly prone areas,

but not too much to be highly visible unless you are looking for it.

(front light mounting areas, side upper fender mount and some hand painting in the creases of the fender)

 

Colorado is not too big on salt, but Mag-Chloride is almost as bad, probably be a summer vehicle though.

 

 

[Eneto-55]

1 hour ago, dcotant said:

Anyone ever fabricate a panel to protect the front grill piece and structural elements from wheel splatter? The few trucks I have worked on had extensive rust in this area in addition to corrosion to the headlight buckets and turn signals not to mention the "butterfly" structural support. Was thinking if there was like an ABS panel in there to prevent the splatter from going forward of the seam between fenders and grill piece might help with that. Though it is true the trucks I have worked on are in the "Salt Mine of the Rust Belt". I know Western and Southern trucks probably don't have these problems. I want to drive my truck year round so interested in protecting these assets.

My first car (the old family car) was a '62 Chrysler, you know, the one with the slanted dual headlights.  There was no inner fender in that car, either, and I've seen more than one of them that is all rusted through above the headlight buckets.  My dad had already had ours repaired once, but it came back through again while I had it.  (It WAS an Ohio car originally, but it was already in Oklahoma when my Dad bought it, in 66.  Maybe the damage was already done, but we also had some dirt roads we traveled on to get to my grandpa & grandma's farm.)

It would take a lot of measuring, and maybe walking around in a salvage with a cardboard template of the wheel opening, to match it up with something, but I think it would be a good idea to put something in there.  Maybe it WOULD just catch more dirt - it would depend on how good of a fit a person could make, finding just the right donor vehicle.

[dcotant]

Thanks for the feed back. I did use POR15 on the inside of fenders and grill piece, well basically everything that is not seen. I was thinking about using undercoating product. I know I should not drive in winter but it is a working truck and is the only truck I own.