My 2003 XLT is in pretty good shape, considering the age and that it was originally a mid-west vehicle. There is a little bit of rust on the very lower of the rear passenger door. I don't want to replace the whole door just for the little bit of rust. The rest of the door looks almost brand new and a door from the junkyard, even if I'm lucky enough to find the same color, won't match up. I also don't want to spend the money on having the whole truck repainted. I have two ideas that I thought of, both of which begin with me sanding the spot and possibly filling in with some bondo. the spot is maybe a half inch high and 3 inches wide. After I do the sanding and bondo, option 1 would be to just get a black decal stripe and run it down both sides. It would cover up the repair. The other option, would be a bit more money. I would have the lower section of the sides the stuff they do the spray in bedliner. I need to actually go down and see how much that would be. While I am add it, I would have the bed lined too.

 

well i can tell you from body shop experience. once you see the rust poke through the rest of the door bottom is just swiss cheese.

 

The little bit of rust you see on the bottom is MUCH worse on the inside. These doors rust out due to the poor design of having the latch exposed on the outside of the door seal. Any fix you do you will have to remove the trim panel and treat the inside of the door shell. I ended up getting used doors that looked ok from the outside until I had the bottom halves sandblasted. It poked some holes through the door skin but it took care of the rust.

 

I've got the same issue as you. My doors are almost perfect but it's starting to show some rust and for some reason the back passengers doors seem to rust out faster the the drivers side. My plan is to buy lower door sheet metal skins and cut the lower part of the doors off, sandblast the inside of the doors and any other rusty areas then spray some kind of protective coating on the inside Por-15 I'm thinking and then weld the new sheet metal skins on. I can tell you for sure that if you don't cut off what's rusted or sandblast and clean the area good the rust will come back probably within six months. There's no way you won't have to repaint short of finding another door in the same color.