Bubbles under paint

I bought this truck back in September and there were a couple small bubbles under the paint on the bed over the wheels. After this crap winter we have had the bubbles grew and now the paint has cracked through. I plan to fix the paint and possibly put on a set of fender flairs which I wanted to do any way. Has anyone else run into this?

currently have it happening on mine seems pretty common from waht i have seen they make replacment panels for our truck around 70 bucks a piece you basically have to cut panel and replace. basically rust is coming thru from the back side and pushing the paint out if you are planning on keeping truck for awhile i would get the panels and repair corretly

I agree with birdman05 that happened to me but I was slow to respond and those little bubbles turned into a baseball size hole. It didn't help that I poked the spot with my finger and put a hole into it but take care of it as soon as you can. As suggested get a new panel otherwise you will be repairing a few times and ending up getting a new one anyways.

you need new bed sides, your only seeing what't turned into a $1,500 to $2,000 repair job.

In order to fix this right and never have it come back again you must do what I did.

-buy new bedsides patches. $150 bucks
-cut old bedside out vivet and them on do all body work and paint.

the problem is the inner skin has a "C" channel which keeps all the slop in there. when you are inthere you must coat everything with a protective coating. You can use eastwoods internal frame coating. I did this when we fixed my bed and sprayed every sq in of the underside of the bed. Then I did a graveltex coating which is kinda like bed liner under then entire truck and wheel wells but it is not rubber in case I ever need to do a repair. (had a friend who runs a auto restore shop recommend it since its he own blend of wanna be Line-X)

you need to put wheel well liners in also, they about $150 new from morpar.

if you have bubbles in you bed you will also see some prob in a few years in your rocker panels...same issues...and the inside of your frame will roat inside out lol.

RAM tough, but crappy however.

Hope this helps ya, I spend 5 grand so far redoing every inches of my truck so it can never rust again and coated my frame inside and out.

fender flairs will just make your problem worse and only cover your rea issue up for about a year or two max.


This is a fixed bed which had all the same damage...it cost me $2,000. a new bed will not do anything for ya but rust out again. 02-08 were not good bed designs.