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2014 Silverado High Country RUST Nightmare

2014 Silverado we bought for our 16 yr old. Turns out the rear frame is suffering the normal total corrosion issue
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Just did this 2 years ago on my '12 Silverado. It blew a brake line and while doing the lines I noticed some pin holes and started poking at stuff, and it kept getting worse. My worst issues were the flat frame sections at the back of the cab right before it curves up for the bed. I wound up using angle iron and plate to patch it. I pulled the bed and I needle scaled and wire wheeled up to the front cab mounts and used rust converter, heavy duty urethane paint, and then Eastwood 2K Chassis Black. After a few months I oil undercoated with PB Blaster Surface Shield. Oil undercoating works, I highly suggest over coating whatever you paint with with Surface Shield, Fluid Film or Wool Wax. My frame still looks like it did when I painted it.
 
jimmyleetn said:
Just looking at the pictures, did you pull this thing from the ocean?!?! Serious rust. I wore socks older than this truck today. Good luck!!!
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Pretty much it's all trucks in this year range up in the Northeast and the northern United states. The Rust Belt does not take prisoners
 
The forward gas tank cross member was 95% intact. The issue was near the gas tank mounting point there were several holes, corrosion and the metal is very thin. I really did not want to cut out the entire cross member for this small amount of damage. Just finished surgery and the patient is doing well. As usual with surgery, you find more damage once you get in there. Not quite sure how I'm going to fix the hole within the hole but I will figure something out.

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I fixed the link to my thread I posted earlier.

I think the problem lies with the boxed frame not having enough drain holes, the waxy coating getting hard and brittle in the cold weather and flaking off, and the construction of the frame is for a combo of strength ease of manufacturing so there's all sorts of areas debris and water can sit and get stuck and rot out like all the cross members. Also the layered construction of them plays a big roll as well letting moisture seep into the cracks and rot stuff out there too.
 
Chevy305 said:
I fixed the link to my thread I posted earlier.

I think the problem lies with the boxed frame not having enough drain holes, the waxy coating getting hard and brittle in the cold weather and flaking off, and the construction of the frame is for a combo of strength ease of manufacturing so there's all sorts of areas debris and water can sit and get stuck and rot out like all the cross members. Also the layered construction of them plays a big roll as well letting moisture seep into the cracks and rot stuff out there too.
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You said it best, ease of manufacturing.
They made it modular with common pieces connected by custom lengths based on the length of the truck.
They were touting it as the best invention ever when the first year came out, and hydroformed pieces if I remember correctly?
 
imiceman44 said:
You said it best, ease of manufacturing.
They made it modular with common pieces connected by custom lengths based on the length of the truck.
They were touting it as the best invention ever when the first year came out, and hydroformed pieces if I remember correctly?
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Yea? Well it Fkin SUCKS.
 
Hell no. I got to commend your tenacity but holy crap no way. Happy to live where I do after seeing that kind of damage.

And yes I agree the wax coating GM puts on the frame is stupid. They could just as easily dip the frame in paint as they do in wax.
 
The funny thing is that it's not just GM, all the manufacturers produce frames in the same way, modular with multiple hydro formed sections sliding into each other. Tacoma frames are notorious for it as well. So even painted frames have the same problems.
 
Chevy305 said:
The funny thing is that it's not just GM, all the manufacturers produce frames in the same way, modular with multiple hydro formed sections sliding into each other. Tacoma frames are notorious for it as well. So even painted frames have the same problems.
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Yes, it's kinda sad actually.

My 1977 K5 Frame was 95% intact and it's spent its life around NYC. My 1990 frame was also about 90+% intact. Had a rust thru where the torsion bar brace is mounted to the frame. Simple 3"x12" strip of steel and it was all better.

This piece of crap is an embarrassment. I just learned the current model full size Chevy trucks have the same wax coating. You'd think they'd learn. I also found that the steel itself is thinner than the steel on the GMT400's which is a partially boxed frame. The GMT900'S won't even be attached in 20yrs. No one, unless they do the work themselves, can afford the repair. Some ppl estimate my current project would be about 7k if a body shop did it.

What's even worse is that I found out, after cutting the frame open, that the wax coating is also inside the frame. So there's no real way for me to even try and protect the inside of the frame from future corrosion by painting it because the wax is there and also flaking off. I'm going to go around the boxed frame portion of the truck and use a air hammer to try and knock as much of the loose rust off. Maybe then I can come in with some internal frame paint and protect it to some degree.
 
Are you adding any drain holes? I think all you can do is shoot cosmoline, fluid film, etc inside every year or so. In this scenario, more holes probably helps.

Although it makes me think back to my childhood seeing white plastic plugs in rockers and such where the "rustproofing" had been applied and around the plugs were the only rusty places.
 
ZombieK5 said:
after we just bought it
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Can I ask why a person would buy something that rusty?

The key to survival on GMs wax coating is to keep it wet, if you apply PFC of fluid film or even used oil every year they wont peel and flake off.
 
Damn, my worst spot on Plank is probably your best spot on this truck.

I wish I had an assload of money, not lottery-do nothing with my life-money, but comfortable enough to load a freight train each month and open my own junkyard out there. :haha:
So much good metal here.
 
And sorry not sorry about the derail
But what could be done differently to prevent this? Not what the manufacturers could do, but everything else?

CA pisses money away on so much bullsheet and leave no money (or brains) left for flood prevention. No, we don't have dikes or enormous amounts of rain here but somehow CA spends nothing to fix the tiny issues it has. How could, with a fraction of CA's health insurance BS, could these states help its VOTING citizens save a car longer than 10-15-20 years?!!!? Gezus

Sometimes after it's already flooded and sometimes proactively set out before it's flooded. LMFAO stupid

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Yearly oil undercoating is the only way to save any modern constructed frame. Fluid Film, NHOU, Wool Wax, etc
 
Chevy305 said:
Yearly oil undercoating is the only way to save any modern constructed frame. Fluid Film, NHOU, Wool Wax, etc
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Is that because nothing else can be done? Like maybe if the county extra salts the roads. Maybe even during the summer. :doah: Would that help :poop:
 
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