New to me DD 2500HD. with a few questions. Poll on rocker panel bed l

[shawnss]

Well some of you know I recently had my first child. I had a RCSB sierra and needed and rear seat. so I sold my RCSB and bought a 98 GMC Sierra that was super clean and well taken care of. I really like this truck and made it my own. It was owned by a older guy who took really good care of it. I really don't want to get rid of it. But it just doesn't have the room I'm looking for. I thought being it was an extended cab the it would be better than my regular cab truck I had before. but really the extended cab does not offer that much more room. this past monday was the first day I had to pick my child up from daycare. Thats when I realized this truck was not going to work for our needs. I have to sit my passenger seat all the way forward for my child's car seat to fit. So nobody can even ride with me in the truck when my son is with me. So the 98 Sierra needs to go.

 

So on Tuesday I started looking for a full size Crew cab. I went and looked at a few but they were beyond beat and the owners still wanted high retail for them. well I have a close friend who's father wheels and deals a lot of vehicles. he sales everything wholesale. So i figured I would see what he has at his place. I came across a 2005 Silverado Crew cab. I am super picky with most of my vehicles. but If the deal is right I can let a few things slide and fix them the way I want them. But with the other trucks I had looked at being so rough and not wanting a new truck I figured I would buy a truck that needs a few things as long as it ran great. so i ended up buying this 2005 Silverado 2500HD crew cab. the truck is in fair shape but exterior needs some love. I owner before me lived on a gravel road and it has some bad rock chipping, no rusting just chips on the lower part of the truck.

 

So here is where I need some opinions. this truck was purchased to be a daily driver and not a show truck. I got a really good deal on it and picked it up for way less than what is books for. So i felt It was a good deal even with the little issues it has. most of the rock chips are on the lower part of the truck on the rocker panels. to fix all the chips the truck would need a paint job. but most of the chipping is down low. so I was thinking of maybe doing the rocker panels in bed liner or would that be a mistake??? the truck is a really dark green so its not like it will standout like a sore thumb. I will be going with black wheels and black nerf bars/ running boards. I was thinking of just going with the standard black on the rockers not to high maybe only 8" to 9" from the bottom of the truck. the truck sits high already sense its a 2500HD and I will be leveling the front up so about another 1.5" inchs up front and planning on running a set of 33" tires. so a bit of the off road look and function.

 

So do you guys think it would be a mistake to do the rocker panels in a bedliner? if not the truck would need a complete paint job to fix it completely useless the pant can be blended but I really doubt that.

 

Truck is an 2005 Silverado. with a 6.0 and a 4l80e its 4WD with cloth charcoal interior. has 96k miles on it. Interior was dirty but with a good detail today. the interior is looking great. I also removed all the plastic door molding and debadged it. even polished out a few scratch's with Adams polish's

 

 

So anyways here are some pictures.

 

in this picture you can see where there wasn't any mud flaps and the quarts behind the rear wheels got beat with rocks. that the primer not rust or bare metal. but either way its there.

 

 

you can see where the rockers are showing wear from the rock chips. the guy didn't run mud flaps and lived down a gravel road. Its a shame people wouldn't put mud flaps on just to save the paint. this is why I'm leaning towards the rockers getting lined.

 

 

I will be running a set of BMF wheels they will be 20 inch wheels with 33" tires.

these are the wheels I will be ordering soon.

 

Edited May 5, 2013 by shawnss (see edit history)

[patrick4317]

That truck looks nice. I think the bedliner would look fine plus would tie in even better when you go black rims. I'd say do it

[BlueAKSSS]

Nice truck! Could you have someone just shoot the rocker panels only and the areas behind the tires? I think that would be a much better idea, when you bedliner something and then go to resell it the buyer will be turned away most likely because they think your trying to cover up rust or other issues. I would fix it right and paint the really bad areas but thats just my opinion.

Edited May 5, 2013 by Matt* (see edit history)

[1BAD2K]

Great lookin truck. I would definitely have it professionally repainted. Its too nice of a truck for bed liner on the body panels.

[SSenvy]

also the bedliner material is hard to get clean, and because you like you vehicles clean, i think it would only give you headaches. I like matts idea, get a painter to blend in from the bottom. WIll it look perfect? No, but it will look better than it does now, and better than bed linering it for sure.

[mxsailor803]

If you lived on a gravel/dirt road like the previous owner did, I would bedliner the bottom section. If not, def blend it and call it good.

[shawnss]

Nice truck! Could you have someone just shoot the rocker panels only and the areas behind the tires? I think that would be a much better idea, when you bedliner something and then go to resell it the buyer will be turned away most likely because they think your trying to cover up rust or other issues. I would fix it right and paint the really bad areas but thats just my opinion.

the rock chipping is pretty much from the front fenders to the back bumper. The rocker panel part behind the rear tires are the worst part. But the rocker panels behind the doors and quite chipped also. So will see. I will be taking it to a body shop on Monday to see what they say. As for the resell I was thinking the same thing. But I will own this truck for along time. I'm thinking the only real correct way to fix it is a complete new paint job.

[shawnss]

If you lived on a gravel/dirt road like the previous owner did, I would bedliner the bottom section. If not, def blend it and call it good.

yeah I don't live on a gravel road and the truck will not see Mich for a gravel road. If it does I will take it slow. I plan on adding mud flaps.if I get the lower section blend and still have it look good I'll do that. Not sure I want to have the complete truck sprayed.

[Muggs]

That truck looks nice. I think the bedliner would look fine plus would tie in even better when you go black rims. I'd say do it

X2

[shawnss]

Im not set on the bed liner on the bottom yet. until talking with the body shop tomorrow I'm just looking around. but heres a picture I found on a truck that has a color matched rocker panels. doesn't look bad.

 

[JC03SS]

If it were me I'd prob just have the bottom painted. If its not gonna be a show truck I'd do that and call it good. Nice choice in wheels. What ever way you go I'm sure it will look great all your vehicles always look great.

[Downeast Johnny]

I would figure that the sun is going to affect the bed spray over time and it will wind up looking bad. I'd spray and blend the rockers or spray the whole truck.

 

Like the wheel choice.

[shawnss]

I would figure that the sun is going to affect the bed spray over time and it will wind up looking bad. I'd spray and blend the rockers or spray the whole truck.

 

Like the wheel choice.

yeah I'm kinda thinking the same thing. not sure how it would look and if it fades then I'm back to square one. I'm going to get a quote tomorrow on just repainting it and go from there.

[shawnss]

I know some are going to hate. but thats Ok. I expect it. but I decided the the best way to find out if I would like the bottom of the rockers black or not is to apply some black on there. so i ran to the ACE hardware down the road to get some black PLASTI DIP. I figured this is the best way to remove it and still be able to see if I cared for the black. so I taped off where I wanted it to be and went to town. I only did the drivers side bed nothing else. I went on smooth and dried very nice. I will tell you if you didn't know it was plasti dip you would think it was painted. But any how it did its job and let me see if I would even like black. well Im glad I did it because I do not care for it being black at all. it looks nasty being green and black. I really thought it wouldn't look to bad in my head. but I was wrong not a fan AT ALL. so it will most likely be getting painted green. if they cant bland it will get a complete paint job.

 

I am sure glad I used the plasti dip to see if I would like it or not. I was not planning on leaving the plasti dip on there, I was simply using it to see if I would like it. It never once crossed my mind to leave it there.

 

Well anyways heres some pictures. Like I said I am not a fan of the black. I was thinking of doing black bed liner on the bottom of the rockers and used the Plasti dip to get an idea of what it would look like in black. the Plasti dip will be coming off right away.

 

In this picture you can see how bad the fender flairs are rock chipped. either way they would have been getting painted.

 

 

living on a gravel road with no flaps really wished it had mug flaps. but thats ok. I bought it for so cheap I could still repaint it and make money. the interior is flawless.

 

 

 

Interior is clean Now was pretty nasty but with Adams polish is turned out great.

[idahoBLKss]

I've seen plenty of trucks that have had the whole bottom of the truck line x'ed and it looked great! IMO I would line x the whole bottom and the fender flairs also it will look sweet specially since your going for a lifted off road look. Key here is line x don't do ryno or other brands as they look cheap and not as good in my opinion. And take the bed rails off looms ghetto.

Edited May 5, 2013 by idahoBLKss (see edit history)