My Bed Is Plastic!

jrh_67 · May 11, 2009

I just recently purchased a 2004 silverado step side pickup and while washing it yesterday for the first time i noticed the bed was plastic! The wheel wells move in and out as you are washing it and it seems really flimsy.... I was just wondering if the fleetside beds are plastic also.

wlvrn1215 · May 11, 2009

YA learn somethin new everyday

MS3DALE · May 11, 2009

I just recently purchased a 2004 silverado step side pickup and while washing it yesterday for the first time i noticed the bed was plastic! The wheel wells move in and out as you are washing it and it seems really flimsy.... I was just wondering if the fleetside beds are plastic also.

Yep,They've been plastic since '88 on the sportside beds,Also the bedsides on the '01-up duallys and '02-'05 quadrasteer trucks are also plastic.

They are not fiberglass.

The regular fleetside bedsides are not plastic,The "Protec" fleetside bed however was plastic...actually the whole bed was plastic!!

tobias · May 11, 2009

They are plastiglass, not fibertic! Damn it.

Wingnut · May 11, 2009

Did they make the Protec bed in sportsides?

09Jimmy · May 11, 2009

They are SMC, sheet molded composite. Not fiberglass. Be happy, they will never rust.

MS3DALE · May 11, 2009

Did they make the Protec bed in sportsides?

No,They were all fleetsides,I forgot about the Protec beds..they were all plastic!!!

Wingnut · May 11, 2009

Yup...

<<<<Had one

georgecdisc · May 11, 2009

My old truck's plastic fenders were nice. The beat up metal rails weren't though. Rust was drooling down the side onto the fenders. Nothing a little bit of sanding and paint could patch up.

MS3DALE · May 11, 2009

Yup...

<<<<Had one

Yeah,I forgot about that....I wouldn't have minded having one myself when I bought my '04,but it was already too late..they had already quite making them/.

ryan_hermanutz · May 11, 2009

Sooooo were they stronger than the sheet metal on the GMT900's?

wlvrn1215 · May 11, 2009

so let me get this right.....plastic! the whole thing? Explain this again to me rich. im intrigued

tobias · May 11, 2009

Sooooo were they stronger than the sheet metal on the GMT900's?

What isn't?

Wingnut · May 11, 2009

so let me get this right.....plastic! the whole thing? Explain this again to me rich. im intrigued

The entire bed was a composite material (think Saturn body work stuff). The body, the bed interior....All of it. The only metal aft of the cab was pretty much the frame. It weighed less than a regular bed, so it increased the gross tow/haul ratings by a bit.

I'll tell you this...That bed was pretty damn tough too. I hauled EVERYTHING in it. Shoveling sand and/or gravel out of it didn't hurt it a bit. No bedliner, no spray in, NOTHING was needed to make it great. The body work was tough as nails too. You could punch it and it would flex...If they'd have marketed it better I think it would have been a big thing. But it went the way of Quadrasteer, and for the same reasons (in my little world's experience/opinion anyway).