These guys Make replacement fiberglass one piece beds for small trucks including Toyotas. Since my bed has some rust in the sides and collusion damage in the rear and needs to be painted once it is fixed, I am wondering if it is better for the long haul to simply skip the sheet metal and go directly to a fiberglass bed in the first place ? If I go to a collusion shop I am looking at $600 for a Sherman left and right bed side from Rock Auto (probably not comparable quality to the original) and then I have to pay to get the old bed sides cut off, the new welded back in, the rear end repaired, patched and the whole shebang sanded and prepped for paint. The BG fiberglass beds start at $1700 and go up to $2300.. Sounds like the most expensive model is gel coat finished as opposed to painting ?? Whichever way, I will need a new tailgate, or else I will have to go the hillbilly way and build my own box, possibly from aluminum so that I can find a way around the midwest rust issue Any experience on this topic, please advise.
I think we have a member on the forum from http://www.toyotafiberglass.com. Their website sucks, but they have some really cool stuff if you can figure out how to navigate it
I wouldnt spend that much money on a fiberglass bed, find out if they are ready to paint or if they are raw, most likely gunna need tons of hours of blocking to get them ready for paint.
If I stay with steel, the typical lifetime is probably less than 5 years with our road salt in winter and chlorine in summer... That is on new vehicles like F250/F350. Life must be good in relatively rust free California.. I can understand why that vendor is in PA, they are pretty much in the center of the "rust belt".
If you just protected your sheet metal you would be good, rubber coating, line-x, or por-15 ? that would stop the rust
I'm with michigan ... by fiber and don't look back at the rust problems all toyotas from this gen had.
Well I have the gen before that and I expect anything to around A$8000 for both metal and fiberglass. If it was me I would get the fiberglass... Is there any resale value on these? comparing to the metal?
For anyone who doesn't understand midwest climate, we have roads covered in sodium chloride or calcium chloride saturated solution "slush" for about 4 months of the year. About another 4 months of the year, the relative humidity is between 60-90% to make sure whatever salt penetrated anywhere keeps working and keeps any galvanic reactions going. Removing either or both of these factors makes a huge difference to vehicle longevity. Pretty much any truck made in the USA that is operated here with this exposure will have rust penetration the full thickness of the panels in "trouble spots" within about 5 years.. This is notwithstanding all the fancy paint and primer technology that is thrown at these things. The only vehicles that seem to fare better are those built with fully zinc electroplated steel (Audi, Porsche). For whatever reason, despite this technology having been around for 20 years, I am not aware of any of the big 3 using it on their truck platforms. My last Audi was more than 10 years old and did not have a single rust penetration anywhere on the body when we traded it. The main thing for me is wondering if I would come out ahead if I deal with all the sheetmetal work and paint. If the job is not done well, it will be rusted out in 2 years probably and that certainly wouldn't be worth the trouble. And for obvious reasons, there are no non rusted out beds or cabs to be had, far and wide and these things are nit cheap to haul from arizona or other dry places where they may still be pristine... I wouldn't be living here if I was able to sell my house, so thats the way it is....
Go with a "Hard Chrome" finish. its like straight chrome dipped repeatedly. Ends up looking like raw steel but its actually plated wonderfully
i lived in pa for 19 years...moved to va and started on weeks of rust removal from the body of my truck...if i could afford a fiberglass bed, i would buy one in a heartbeat...DO IT!!!