Daryl Z71's 2006 Silverado Z71 Re-build

Daryl LBZ · February 10, 2018

Ordered a new primered rear bumper as well. The plan is the fix the cab rust, repaint all of the silver on the entire truck, along with painting the rear bumper silver and the front bumper cap silver. The lower lip on the tailgate will get sprayed in silver as well.

HoosierZ · February 10, 2018

After the new rockers are on, be sure to coat the insides with some kind of rust prevention or cavity wax to help them survive. When you weld on the replacements, some of the primer inside burns off exposing bare metal and they’ll rust out quicker than the originals did. I used Noxudol 700 on my ‘16 after finding the rockers were rusted thru on my ‘08. Time will tell if it helps but it definitely can’t hurt.

Your truck will look great with painted bumpers. I never could stand that GM didn’t paint the bottom edge of the tailgate on the two-tone trucks.

Daryl LBZ · February 10, 2018

After the new rockers are on, be sure to coat the insides with some kind of rust prevention or cavity wax to help them survive. When you weld on the replacements, some of the primer inside burns off exposing bare metal and they’ll rust out quicker than the originals did. I used Noxudol 700 on my ‘16 after finding the rockers were rusted thru on my ‘08. Time will tell if it helps but it definitely can’t hurt.

Your truck will look great with painted bumpers. I never could stand that GM didn’t paint the bottom edge of the tailgate on the two-tone trucks.

That's a great tip, thanks! As of now I'm planning on spraying bed liner everywhere that I make a repair as well.

Here are some pictures of the current rust.

HoosierZ · February 10, 2018

Wow! That’s some serious rot. Since most body panels rust thru from the inside, the bedliner only really protects from rock chips and the subsequent surface rust. You may look into a clear or paintable chip guard for the lower body to reduce chips.

Daryl LBZ · February 10, 2018

Wow! That’s some serious rot. Since most body panels rust thru from the inside, the bedliner only really protects from rock chips and the subsequent surface rust. You may look into a clear or paintable chip guard for the lower body to reduce chips.

That's why I figured I would spray the inside of the rockers as much as I could. Do you think that will help at all?

HoosierZ · February 10, 2018

Spraying the back side can’t hurt as long as you’re careful not to plug any of the drain holes. The problem with the rockers is they are a blind cavity that water and salt get into and if they aren’t protected internally and flushed out after salt exposure, they end up rusting thru like yours. If your rockers have plugs in them similar to my ‘16, it’s a good idea to remove them a couple times a year and flush out the rockers to clean out the salt and dirt. I neglected to do that until it was too late on my ‘08. I was shocked when I did and I saw dirty, rusty water pouring out of the drain holes for several minutes.

HoosierZ · February 10, 2018

One thing the cavity wax will do that paint and bedliner paint can’t do is penetrate into the pinch welds and harden to seal out water and salt.

Daryl LBZ · February 10, 2018

Spraying the back side can’t hurt as long as you’re careful not to plug any of the drain holes. The problem with the rockers is they are a blind cavity that water and salt get into and if they aren’t protected internally and flushed out after salt exposure, they end up rusting thru like yours. If your rockers have plugs in them similar to my ‘16, it’s a good idea to remove them a couple times a year and flush out the rockers to clean out the salt and dirt. I neglected to do that until it was too late on my ‘08. I was shocked when I did and I saw dirty, rusty water pouring out of the drain holes for several minutes.

I'll keep all of this in mind whenever I start work on it.