Good Day Everyone!

I've got what might seem to be an unimportant question (so I'll provide some 'why' background so I don't look too goofy for asking!):

This week I'm on Rust Patrol on my 2000 Sierra. Score: Rust- 10,000 Me- 3. It seems the last owner was quite liberal with thick globs of pink body filler on top of cardboard & newspaper. It's all showing itself now. Dude is a good painter, though.

Part of the project involved removing the drop in bed liner my truck came with. I take it out in spring & fall to clean, touch up paint rub offs & re-wax. Yikes! It is rust central under it. (Guess what's not going back in my truck? Ever)

While repairing & cleaning, I noticed the seam at the front of the bed floor, where it meets the vertical wall. I cleaned junk out and saw some of the 'pleats'- high ones & low ones had body caulk & some did not. If I slowly put water directly at the seam, some sections let the water out, some don't. Lots of body caulk has disappeared from my truck over the years.

My big question is- Should this be caulked or left open? Does it drain to a sanctioned place or to a "I'm gonna wreck your truck with more rust" place? I can't see from below.

I went to some used dealers' lots to look at other trucks for caulk No Luck. They all had either drop in liners or sprayed liners with big gooby messes of liner at that seam. Or, the trucks had caps or lids.

What to your trucks have in that joint? (I'm hoping it is caulked. Otherwise I have a lot of rust to somehow reach & get rid of in that tiny seam!)

Thanks very much for your help!
Paul

 

well on my 88 it had caulking where bed meets the sides and on the front also
my 94 is the same way its from teh factory that way as far as it leaking both my trucks do leak from them im not sure if its sposed to or not
but if i had it my way it wouldnt leak but i have some rust wholes starting in my bad floor near the tailgat plus i have a goosneck hitch whole where the ball used to be
as far as other trucks my brothers 94 gmc sierra is the sam caulking aroudn the edges where the bed meets teh sides and front
i dont know if his leaks i havent cared to look on his truck as he dont care or not
and the vehicals at work are the same way

i would go with a spray in bed liner if you really want to have one there great and they last a long time there designed to be tough and not scrap scratch off go with linex it will protect your bed and at the same time stop rust i would be doing that but as mentioned above i have wholes and rust starting

hope this helps

 

It's a TRUCK bed, the inside is suppose to be scrached, dented, and rusty. But if you must be a "Sally", it's caulk at the seam, the drains are the two holes in the front corners. don't get mad, just trying to be funny

 

I'll be honest, I've never looked at my bed long enough to notice if it had caulk or not. I'll jump on back there some time and snap a picture of it for you. It's a 1989, and if you want to talk about rust, you've just encountered the end-all of all rusty trucks (highly exaggerated of course, I know there's definitely much worse off trucks out there)

I assure you though, the bed is solid enough to hold several hundred pounds of metal. The supports are some of the best pieces of metal on the truck, oddly enough (except for the new stuff I just pasted onto the axle leak ... good ol' metal in a tube aka jbweld lol)

 

Thanks, folks, for the answers.
I guess I'll body caulk the front closed. It occurred to me that I pulled a bunch of rotted leaf parts out. That can't be good for the metal.

I did take a flashlight and mirror for a better look. There's rust in the joints. If rust were gold, I'd be livin' large off this truck.

Hey Great Lakes- Don't you be worrying about if my truck has dents & dings & stuff. It has to be kept perfect for going to Starbucks with my other preppy yuppie friends. Don't even think about putting anything in the bed or towing. I own it to be one of the cool guys. Gonna get me a shiny new Harley, chrome it out & grab some designer leathers from Neiman Marcus so I can hang with the Rolex Riders, too.

In reality- My poor truck works its butt off. Some days I've moved 100,000 or more pounds of cable & distribution equipment (many, many trips, of course). It tows like a champ, as well. And, yes it has dings. Lots & lots of dings. Some mega-dings. Battle scars, I guess. And, you should see the mis-matched rattle can paint patches. (Did you know Duplicolor Lacquer "GM 8555 Black" is brown when next to OEM paint on this black truck?)

But rust is something I try to keep up on. So far, I'm losing that battle.

As a kid (waaaaay back in the early 70's) I was the king of rust repair. My neighborhood buddies called me "Pauly Scheib" Fix It, Paint It, $10.00, Next ...

Lots of road signs became patch panels. Bus stop ones made great floor boards. I could lead body work in like a pro. (Can't do filler worth a darn now! Too many sheets of sandpaper have died in vain because of my filler work.)

Hey, maybe breathing all that lead (of course, with a Camel no filter hanging out of my mouth) is why my brain's foggy these days. Maybe that's why my brain's foggy these days. Did I ever tell you about using lead as body filler? Back when I was a kid ...

For sure the plastic tub liner is not going back in (it is on Craigslist as we speak). I can't pop for a pro spray in bed liner. I'll either re-paint after I ditch the rust (doubt it) or I'll do a Herculiner or Rustoleum roll-on el cheapo kit, knowing I'll be patching it up. (A lot).
Thanks again, guys for the advice!

Paul

 

touche , I think I spelled that right

 

Sorry for the reply about being a preppie truck. A friend read my reply and said I was very, very rude to Mr. Great Lakes. Perhaps I should go to etiquette school.

I do apologize if any offense was taken.I was trying to, in a convoluted way, say I agree with Mr. Great Lakes. I do agree... Being too fussy would like buying a shovel & not digging a hole with it because it might get dirty. (My idiot neighbor asked to borrow a circular saw from me. What was wrong with his? Nothing. Said he didn't want to get his all dusty.)

Oh yeah, I found out that this seam is, indeed, caulked closed at the factory. My brother asked his friend who retired out of GM Truck & Bus.

Peace!
Paul

 

Well I took a gander at my bed the other day, and it appears that there's no caulking along the bottom side of the bed wall by the truck cab. There's caulk other places, such as the walls of the of the back of the bed by the cab, and along the wheel wells, but otherwise I don't see any caulk by the cab.

 

Thanks NullHead!

I think this is turning out to be "Some Do & Some Don't" kind of thing. I was on a job site today with 3 trucks like mine & no bed liners. (Somewhere between 2000 & 2007 model). Two had no caulk & one had it.

Goofy, Huh?

Paul

 

Yeah, I didn't think my bed has had chalk until I checked.. It was pretty bad but I'm a boss and carried some heavy cement on it.