2007 Chevrolet Silverado (New Body) Rust

Hexa Fox · September 12, 2018

Hey I will try to keep this short and to the point. For some time, I have been considering whether or not to sell my 2007 Silverado. It is coming up on needing a lot of work and I figure if I can scrape up the cash to make the payment on a newer Silverado/Sierra it might be worth it. Before I forgot it is 4x4 and has about 95,000 miles on it. It is a long bed and has the 4.8 V8 engine.

Anyway, the truck has been suffering from what I would call 'considerable' rust underneath to the frame and now it has began to get around the bottom of my paint job and chip it off. I was thinking about sanding it down (or having someone do it for me) and painting the lower six inches or so black. I have seen it done on a lot of trucks. It is also coming up on new brake pads, possibly calibers and rotors as well. Also it has never had the transmission oil changed so I am planning on changing the filter in the pan and doing that as well. So basically I am sort of beginning to wonder if I should consider selling it and purchasing a newer one. However, the truck has never left me on the side of the road and runs great.

Buckshot556 · September 12, 2018

It's more than likely rusting from the inside out. If you don't want to drive a rusty vehicle I'd sell it. Don't feel bad, mine is two years old and has surface rust on the frame already.

Buckshot556 · September 12, 2018

Also the repairs you mention are one and done for a while. With new vehicle prices the way they are you may be a much happier man fixing up your ride and living payment free.

Hexa Fox · September 27, 2018

On 9/11/2018 at 10:06 PM, Buckshot556 said:

Also the repairs you mention are one and done for a while. With new vehicle prices the way they are you may be a much happier man fixing up your ride and living payment free.

Thanks for the reply Buckshot I appreciate it. I just published another post about changing the transmission fluid. Hopefully I will get some good feedback from this cool community. Anyway the rust on the underneath it is pretty bad I would say. However, it has just gotten to the very bottom part of the actual body so it really is not even visible yet.

I am not sure if I mentioned this before but I sort of got tricked into putting truck tires on my Silverado. I got "talked up to it" if you prefer. The truck definitely has more traction but the Cadillac ride is lone gone now. I really miss how smooth my truck used to ride, it is the main reason I bought a Silverado. I am thinking about selling the light truck tires and buying passenger tires again. My buddy told me he wished he would have talked to me first as he could have told me the ride was going to get rougher. He said that they are better on the bigger trucks (2500-3500) as they weigh them down better.

greatmizzou · September 27, 2018

If you tow a trailer the LT tires are fine. But if you don’t, get the passenger tires when they wear out.

take some pictures of the rust and post them. The repairs you mentioned are no big deal at all honestly. I was on the fence with mine and assumed rust was real bad, but after looking at darn near everything I realized it wasn’t that bad.

There will always be something to fix but it’s usually cheaper then a $500/month truck payment every month.

Hexa Fox · September 28, 2018

11 hours ago, greatmizzou said:

If you tow a trailer the LT tires are fine. But if you don’t, get the passenger tires when they wear out.

take some pictures of the rust and post them. The repairs you mentioned are no big deal at all honestly. I was on the fence with mine and assumed rust was real bad, but after looking at darn near everything I realized it wasn’t that bad.

There will always be something to fix but it’s usually cheaper then a $500/month truck payment every month.

Yeah I am leaning towards keeping the truck. It (like everywhere) has been raining every single day. I am going to change the transmission fluid as soon as possible and will try to snap some pictures then. There is just a lot of expenses coming up with the truck and thought maybe it would just be better to take that money and put it towards a new one. Plus changing the transmission fluid is always an uncertain thing but I think it will be okay.

Hexa Fox · October 9, 2018

Sorry it took so long guys. I am focusing on getting my transmission oil changed out right now. Which can only be described as a pain in the @$$. I have a detailed thread of how that project is going on here as well. Anyway these are the only pictures I have taken thus far as the body goes. That entire area that I marked with a red box is now completely hollow. I just applied a little pressure to it and it easily collapsed. I will take another photo showing what I am dealing with now.

I realize I will now be fighting an uphill battle as it rusts from the inside out. However, I might try to purchase some of that mesh netting from Bondo and fill it in with the other filler material they sell, paint it Victory Red, and hope it holds up for awhile. What do you guys think?

greatmizzou · October 9, 2018

That’s not bad. I knocked out rust, power washed the inside and sanded or cut away most the rust i could. I then unloaded rust inhibitor inside the rocker when it all dried. The power washing sort of cleaned out the weep holes in the rocker and it was amazing how much flakey rust blocked those up.

I now just deal with it and ignore it. Everything else on the truck is decent

You put bondo and mesh on that without addressing some of the rust, it will just spread and bubble next to your bondo job and it will be a waste of time and money. Worst scenario, the rust festers while sealed from the outside and rots your inner rocker panel.

Hexa Fox · October 29, 2018

On 10/9/2018 at 11:11 AM, greatmizzou said:

That’s not bad. I knocked out rust, power washed the inside and sanded or cut away most the rust i could. I then unloaded rust inhibitor inside the rocker when it all dried. The power washing sort of cleaned out the weep holes in the rocker and it was amazing how much flakey rust blocked those up.

I now just deal with it and ignore it. Everything else on the truck is decent

You put bondo and mesh on that without addressing some of the rust, it will just spread and bubble next to your bondo job and it will be a waste of time and money. Worst scenario, the rust festers while sealed from the outside and rots your inner rocker panel.

Hey greatmizzou and Buckshot556,

Thanks for your responses guys. I just took a picture of what it looks like now that I cleaned some of the rust out of that location. It was literally just flaking off, I am surprised that it did not give way while driving it. It does not look good, but not particularly bad either. Anyway it will give a better idea. I just took this other picture of my truck too. You probably cannot believe that it is the same truck.

Also I just began another thread regarding my tires and ride I mentioned earlier. It is located at the following link.

Bill336 · October 30, 2018

Not a body man, but here's what I'd do if you have access to a small MIG welder. Cut back the rusty parts to good metal. That's going to open up some body cavities. Use a good rust converter (as opposed to a rust inhibitor) on everything you can reach inside. CRC makes a good one. Then use the rust inhibitor on top of that. Weld in new metal, using the converter/inhibitor on the inside before welding. Sand the welds down, do the converter/inhibitor outside, then paint. It isn't a guarantee of stopping the rusties, but it's about as good as you're going to get.

Hexa Fox · October 30, 2018

47 minutes ago, Bill336 said:

Not a body man, but here's what I'd do if you have access to a small MIG welder. Cut back the rusty parts to good metal. That's going to open up some body cavities. Use a good rust converter (as opposed to a rust inhibitor) on everything you can reach inside. CRC makes a good one. Then use the rust inhibitor on top of that. Weld in new metal, using the converter/inhibitor on the inside before welding. Sand the welds down, do the converter/inhibitor outside, then paint. It isn't a guarantee of stopping the rusties, but it's about as good as you're going to get.

Yeah I understand, I think I feel more like greatmizzou in that I do my best to ignore it. However, I would like to get some of the structure back and possibly paint it. Then be happy with that for several years before looking at a new truck. I have not welded since High School either, but guess it is never too late to learn again.

My father said to put a piece of sheet metal there and rivet that in, and fill it in with some bondo. I would be happy with that even if the rivets were sticking out and it was a little uneven. That side of the truck you see in the picture is where the hole is. So you cannot see it without looking under the truck right now. So restoring some of the structure and holding off on any extra damage for as long as I can is really my only goal.