Unpainted Bed Rail Pockets - Anyone Else?

softail_silverado · May 19, 2014

I have had my truck for a little while now (2200 miles) and it had never came to my attention until this weekend when I was installing my tonneau cover that the inside of my bed rail pockets never got painted. There is a light dusting of grey primer and a hit of ruby red overspray from where they sprayed the rest of the bed but the inner pockets have no paint. IMO that will become a HUGE rust issue in no time. I am having the trans line recall done tomorrow that was issued a few weeks ago and was wondering if this was something I could discuss with the dealership to fix? I haven't had any other issues with the truck and have never had to take an issue to a dealer so how should I go about getting this fixed?

Silverado-Hareek · May 19, 2014

I don't think it's anything to worry about. The body on these trucks is galvanized so rust shouldn't be an issue at all in these primed only locations. Plus they'll never really experience much wear and tear that I can see.

Pinnacle · May 20, 2014

If you see primer then there has to be paint to be applied over it. Post a pic.

Silverado-Hareek · May 20, 2014

If you see primer then there has to be paint to be applied over it. Post a pic.

Look down the "handle" on your bedrail near the tailgate. It's not really painted the color of your truck but just a general finish. I don't think it's anything to be concerned about though.

softail_silverado · May 20, 2014

While I was at the dealer last night I went down the line of new trucks and checked each one. None of them had color matched pockets (they were all grey with just a hit of metallic overspray) so I'm guessing its just another poor design flaw by GM. When I come across a '13 I'm going to check it out and see if those were the same way. My last truck was a 98 and it had some nice beefy paint and I just wasn't use to seeing something like this. It could possibly be by design I suppose, but I didn't even bring it up to the guy I was dealing with for the recall. I'm sure I would have gotten the same response as everyone else who takes oddball problems to GM. "Thats normal." haha

Eventually I may mask everything off and spray something down in the pockets just for piece of mind but for now I'll just leave it alone.

TJay74 · May 20, 2014

Do you understand how a vehicle is painted at the factory? There is no human that is walking around with a spray gun spraying the paint. The entire truck is ran thru a EPO bath that coats the truck, then as it rolls thru the paint booth it is negatively charged and the primer is sprayed in which coats the truck, then baked, then it goes thru the paint both and charged again and painted, then baked a final time.

I have never seen the bed pocket stakes fully painted, just no way to get the paint to flow down into that area.