Bed Rust, What to do?

I took the bed off the truck to make hitch install easier. After removing the OEM bedliner I found this rust spot near passenger wheel well.

It is a bit bubbled up, it's not very soft yet and a wire brush didn't take off too much except for some surface rust. I could certainly dig into it with a screw driver or something and pull a bit up if I tried. The metal is peeling up slowly.


I took a pick from bottom and is present there also. This is side view from Right Rear wheel.

Hard to see but it is directly over the small cross-member of the bed and looks like bubbles in the middle of it.

Question is what to do with it? I am taking it in to Toyota later this week for the Spare tire warranty work but don't expect them to do anything about it. PO had liner sprayed on frame and last call to Toyota said I got nothing coming.

Assuming I don't get help, what should I do?
Cut it out and weld something in?
Clean up top and bottom (hard to reach), spray with primer and paint, put bed liner back on and forget about it?

 

I would remove the bed and get a real good look at it, first. Then go from there. Of course it's right on the glue seam, so that complicates the repair.

You could probably to a fairly decent job by just sanding down the rust, and throwing a patch over the top rather than trying to butt weld everything. Then, throw a thick enough layer of bed liner and you'll never notice it. Or maybe weld a plate to the bottom and just sand down the top and throw bed-liner on.

Depending on how bad it is, you might find it more worth your while to just get a new (used) bed from a wrecking yard or something. Then dip the thing in bed-liner and re-install.


Can you tell I like bed liner?

 

You should really think about an exciting career in the fast-paced bed liner industry. Unlimited earning potential, make $100k+ from home!!!

Interesting thoughts.
I have a body shop down the street that I'm closes with and plan on showing later today. The upside is a cheap/barter work and he has done body repair for 25+ years, downside is he has taken in paint fumes for 25+ years.....

Not sure I want to take the bed off again to fix but likely I will have to either way. I have access to welder and some metal but trying to avoid the cut and weld. Fab shop close but more $.
I didn't think about a new bed, one I have is beat up and when it was off over weekend I spent hour hammering dents out. It's also been "touched up" with rattle can so doesn't particularly match well. I use the mud and dirt camouflage method. Not sure if it's worth the cost considering it is a "working" truck.

Maybe a take a wire wheel to it and clean it out, bondo, prime and paint. It is going to be under the plastic bed liner anyways.
I'll see how much it will cost to spray it but I use it mostly to haul, off-road and generally beat up.
Thanks for ideas.

 

Mine rusted in that exact spot. I found it while treating the frame with POR15. I just cut all the rusted metal out, treated the now open exposed area with POR15 then cut a new piece and riveted it in. More POR15 and undercoating underneath and good to go. It is the bed not something to have to worry about cosmetically anyway.

 

I wouldn't bother with the bondo, especially since you'll have a plastic bed-liner. Bondo isn't really structural, it just makes it look purdy (if done right, lol)

With a plastic bed-liner, you could just remove as much rust as possible, then get a plate of ~18-20ga steel from home depot and cut and bend it around to the shape you need, then just smear it with a bunch of JB weld or other metal adhesive (since welding across that seam in the bed would be problematic) and throw some primer/paint on it. Cover it up with your plastic bed liner and no one will ever know.

 

yep, mine too. I did the same. I cut the bad metal and made a patch that will be welded there

 

Last thing I need is another project but sounds like the right way to go.

I saw a decent bed on a salvage car today but was red........

 

What's weird is I've seen a few with rot in that same spot. I'm not sure if it's the muffler heat or what

 

I need to remove my bed liner and check for this.

 

mine rotted there but about a foot farther back. i just cleaned up and welded a patch over it (which was hell being so thin in some spots and using .035 wire)

 

What I did

 

that looks good.

how did you get the profile to match up? Lay it over current and pound?haha

 

he cut out the piece from another bed.

 

Yep just cut it out to match from another bed

 

This does bring up another point about why plastic bed liners suck... They don't prevent any rust, and just hide it so it gets bad without you ever knowing.

IMO, whatever you do, ditch the plastic bed liner when you're done and opt for my old favorite spray-in/paint-on type.

 

I had a plastic bed liner that caused same thing. I cut mine out and then just welded in diamond plate and rattle canned it with undercoat. (this was the days before spray in liners) Truck is still running with same bed today.

 

Plastic drop in bed liners are a terrible idea for this exact reason. They trap water and crap underneath them and end up causing more harm to the bed than they protect against.

 

I've got similar rust on my 99; from what I can tell right now it's just on the surface. What I'm planning on doing (once I get it all put back together...been rebuilding the frame and finally just got the cab lowered back down) is wiring brushing (using my angle grinder) the rusted areas top and bottom, then treating with Ospho. Ospho is phosphoric acid which converts rust to iron phosphate, killing the oxidation. On the underside I'll be using Chassis Saver to seal it up, and on the top side I've got herculiner, which I got on sale a while back.

I actually like the look of a plastic bedliner (shoot me, I know), but agree it has major drawbacks. I'm thinking that with the herculiner in place the common rubbing and wearing due to the plastic liner won't be as much of an issue. One thing I like the plastic liners for is dent protection...for what it's worth...

 

I pulled my bed liner today and was fairly relieved. There is a spot that needs treating in the usual place next to the wheel well. I'm planing to do a raptor liner after treating this. I've been using the Permatex rust treatment on other projects.

Here are photos after I washed the area and spun a wire wheel over it. This seems to be deep surface rust and not all the way through. I hope to treat it, re-caulk it, prime and raptor. I'm all open to suggestions.

 

Is there no way to stop this rust? Is cutting it out the only way to keep it from growing once it gets to this point?

Even though this rust isn't what I consider server, I think I may cut it out and weld in some sheet metal. I don't want the rust growing under the Raptor liner I plan in apply. Anyone know what thickness the bed is? I need to find a scrap of sheet metal.