Cover for rear wheel well

[tyedinak]

Any good ideas about a cover from the rocker box end cap to the side panel, keep all the **** from building up and rusting out again. Thought about maybe foaming in but if that didn't work could make more of a mess.

 

[bigbadchev84]

Do not foam it, That will act like a sponge and just hold the water in there. Its not like it is all that hard to reach up in there with a hose every couple of months and was any debris out of there.

 

[sponsoredbydad]

That never crossed my mind. That sure is clean thou. Is the whole truck blue or just underneath?

 

[Greg72]

I'd do a good quality seam sealer to eliminate those deep crevices as a good start.

I suppose if you really wanted to spend a lot of time you could also fabricate some angled sheetmetal divereters to help the debris to run out more easily....followed again by seam sealer on all the perimeter seams.

Check out Ryoken's thread if you haven't already. He has done some really slick stuff on his own truck with the seamsealers and other techniques to keep crud from accumulating in the first place.

 

[tyedinak]

The whole truck is blue, just getting it put back together after paint.

 

[tRustyK5]

I was thinking mudflap material cut as a deflector in that area...combined with a good rinse on a regular basis. My unscientific study of rust patterns on K5's tells me areas that can retain debris stay wet and promote rust. Any hollow areas will fill up with debris (rockers...) then rust. If it can drain easily and dry easily it'll stay rust free for many many years. My proof was my '81 K5, i replaced the floor areas, and the rockers, but left the rockers open. 9 years being driven every winter and not a rust bubble to be seen. I didn't even paint over that cheap black primer the rockers were coated with.

I don't think GM intentionally designed them this way, at least I hope not, but if I was more paranoid i'd say they did. That and the unpainted and unprimed areas drive me insane. Even my '90 which has all the new fangled double sided 59 layer zinc coating...but unpainted in many problem areas.

Rene