Ford F-150 Detailing

Body

Aluminum since 2015

Frame & bed

Still steel

Cab

Work-truck wear

Bed

Liner + drains

Aluminum body, steel everything else

Since the 2015 model year, F-150 cabs and beds have been aluminum. Aluminum does not rust the way steel does, and the visible body panels on an F-150 will not develop the rocker and arch rot that older steel trucks do. That is real, and it is where the good news ends.

The frame is steel. The underside components are steel. Fasteners and brackets are steel. And where steel and aluminum meet, galvanic corrosion can occur if the joint is wet and salted — which in Wisconsin it is, for five months. So the underside of an F-150 needs the same winter attention as any truck, and arguably more care about keeping the dissimilar-metal joints clean. The paint on the aluminum panels behaves like any paint: it marks, it takes fallout, it needs decontamination and protection.

The bed

The bed is aluminum too, and it dents more easily than steel did, which is why the factory bed liner options matter. A spray-in liner holds liquid in its texture and absorbs oil into its surface. A drop-in liner traps water and grit between itself and the bed, where it sits.

We clean beds with the liner out where it comes out, the floor underneath addressed, and the drain holes cleared. The tailgate step and the integrated tailgate work surface collect grit in their mechanisms and get blown out.

Work cab wear

Most F-150s in our area work. The cab takes workwear abrasion on the driver's bolster, boot scuffs on the sill, tool grease on the door card, and the food and drink of a working day in the console. The rear seat, on crew cabs, is a shelf for gear and the floor beneath it has never seen a vacuum.

We treat the driver's quarter as its own job, blow out the console and cupholders with compressed air, fold the rear seat both ways, and check the under-seat storage that most owners have never opened. The truck page covers the full approach.

Fleet and lease

A lot of F-150s are fleet units or lease returns, and both come back on a checklist. The fleet page covers scheduled resets; the lease return guide covers which items on a work truck's inspection are addressable and which are repair.