2007 Chevrolet Silverado (New Body Style) Rocker Panel Rust

Hexa Fox · May 11, 2020

Hey guys,

So I have posted here about this before, but my problem has progressed pretty severely in the past year. As many of you know I bought a new truck and decided to test my luck on selling my old truck myself. I thought it would go well having less than 100,000 miles on it and the heavily sought after LS based engine in it. Well long story short, I was wrong.

Anyway, now I am trying to figure out where to go from here with my old truck. I have been trying to sell it for several months now and think the rocker panel rust is keeping it from selling. I took it to a friend yesterday and he said I should be able to purchase the cab corners and rocker panels then cut away the old rotting stuff to weld in the new sheet metal. I am not apposed to purchasing a cheap flux welder or something and trying to do a half decent job on it. However, I do not know where to start, I do not even know where to look for the new sheet metal for my truck. According to him I might be able to find stuff that is an exact match for my truck.

I am now down to asking $8,000 for the truck and hoping to get at least $7,500 out of it. My friend told me that if he did it I would be in the $2,000 range for the repair and a body shop would be a lot more. I am thinking he is probably right. So I might be looking at trying to do this myself. I was thinking maybe I could get my sheet metal from Home Depot or something, cut away the rust until I see shiny metal, weld the new sheet metal in and paint it with a rough bed liner like material. So then it will not even look like I tried to cover it up and the repair might look half decent. I will post pictures here too. So what do you guys think?

diyer2 · May 11, 2020

I would lower the price until it sells.

Wouldn't put more money into it.

Just went through this with a car.

KBB was not taken into account.

Lowered the price $2 K to sell it.

Hexa Fox · May 11, 2020

2 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

I would lower the price until it sells.

Wouldn't put more money into it.

Just went through this with a car.

KBB was not taken into account.

Lowered the price $2 K to sell it.

This is what I was thinking. However, I was also thinking if I buy a $100.00 Flux Welder from Harbor Freight and some sheet metal from Home Depot I am looking at a couple hundred bucks at a repair attempt. I have not welded since high school either, so not sure if it is the best decision. The rest of the truck, including the frame is honestly in excellent shape. I have no clue how this rust got this bad with the rest of it holding up pretty well. I mean the frame has rust on it, but definitely not what you would expect to see when comparing it to the pictures here.

davester · May 11, 2020

Do you already know how to weld proficiently? And welding thin sheet metal is that much harder (compared with welding thicker stuff), as it is much easier to blow through it (make a hole), or to cause it to warp. It might look easy, but unless you know how to do it already, it's not.

And then trying to form sheet metal to fit that area, where everything is curved, is non-trivial to get right. And getting it wrong may cause whistling, or a noticeable draft because the door then won't seal right.

IMHO, you won't get the money back if you pay someone to make it look nice (other than perhaps if you know someone willing to give you a good friends&family discount), and trying to DIY in a slapdash manner will reduce the value of the truck (as someone seeing that would assume the rest of the truck has been repaired in a similar way).

Hexa Fox · May 11, 2020

1 hour ago, davester said:

Do you already know how to weld proficiently? And welding thin sheet metal is that much harder (compared with welding thicker stuff), as it is much easier to blow through it (make a hole), or to cause it to warp. It might look easy, but unless you know how to do it already, it's not.

And then trying to form sheet metal to fit that area, where everything is curved, is non-trivial to get right. And getting it wrong may cause whistling, or a noticeable draft because the door then won't seal right.

IMHO, you won't get the money back if you pay someone to make it look nice (other than perhaps if you know someone willing to give you a good friends&family discount), and trying to DIY in a slapdash manner will reduce the value of the truck (as someone seeing that would assume the rest of the truck has been repaired in a similar way).

I am not sure how close your last post was to mine but no I am not proficient in welding. I was pretty good at it back in high school, I got a feel for how difficult it was. However, tackling a job like this one while getting right back into it probably is not a good idea. Just it is an option for me and I could also try to find the panels that are already cut to fit into here. Then I could remove the rust and cut the panels to fit. I realize that is probably not going to be the easiest job either. So I guess buying sheet metal from Home Depot is not my best bet. It is why I asked.

Does anyone know where I could find the sheet metal panels for a truck like mine that are made to fit? That is if they exist? That might be a better option, I would like to see what I am working with though.

dsr611 · May 12, 2020

You can get the body panels from LMC truck (not OEM), or can probably get OEM at GM Parts direct (or other GM parts retailer).

davester · May 12, 2020

You can probably get the panels at local body shops or body shop suppliers.

Hexa Fox · May 12, 2020

21 hours ago, dsr611 said:

You can get the body panels from LMC truck (not OEM), or can probably get OEM at GM Parts direct (or other GM parts retailer).

Thanks this website looks like they are probably going to have what I need. So now the question, from looking at these parts and from looking at my truck my only option is going to be to weld them on correct? My friend told me on the earlier models there were literally bolt holes to remove and install new panels. It does not look like that is any kind of an option for me.

Hexa Fox · May 13, 2020

18 hours ago, davester said:

You can probably get the panels at local body shops or body shop suppliers.

I am going to take it to a local body shop that I trust. The last person that I let look at it was the friend of a friend. I have put it off because I have almost no doubt it will not be worth doing. I might have to just keep lowering it until it does sell like the previous user mentioned. I hate biting the bullet so to speak. I thought there would be a lot more people that would know what this truck is and be interested in it.

davester · May 13, 2020

It might be breakeven to do, if the rest of the body is in great shape (as in, no bumps/scratches/rust), particularly with the low miles (assuming it's real [and I'm not calling you a liar], as it's trivial to swap the IP with one that shows lower mileage).

Hexa Fox · May 14, 2020

21 hours ago, davester said:

It might be breakeven to do, if the rest of the body is in great shape (as in, no bumps/scratches/rust), particularly with the low miles (assuming it's real [and I'm not calling you a liar], as it's trivial to swap the IP with one that shows lower mileage).

The miles are actual miles. The truck is honestly in excellent overall shape. As I said before the frame has very little rust for a truck this old. That is why I have been considering having the rust on the cab repaired. It is the only flaw in this truck. However, even putting a couple thousand dollars into it might be difficult to get back.

Hexa Fox · May 18, 2020

On 5/11/2020 at 9:55 PM, dsr611 said:

You can get the body panels from LMC truck (not OEM), or can probably get OEM at GM Parts direct (or other GM parts retailer).

Thanks for this. I found the catalog for the specific body panels of my truck. I am waiting to hear back from the company now. If I only need cab corners and outer rocker panels it will cost me about $400.00. I am still considering buying a cheap flux welder and doing it myself. I could probably have a complete repair for around $600.00 after paint and clear coat.

I mean is it possible to make a irreversible mistake? Like I could always take my grinder and grind down the welds if I use too much flux or something. I am torn gentlemen. I had a guy look at the truck the other day and he was super excited to see it but once he seen the rust he said it was a deal breaker for him.

In case anyone was wondering here is the link to the body panels for my truck.

https://www.lmctruck.com/1999-13-chevy-gmc/body-panels/ce-2007-13-steel-cab-repair-panels