We bought our 2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD new. It was only a few months after paying it off in 2010 that the rust began showing up. The first place that it became evident was on the tailgate. I had the truck in for some body work after hitting a deer in 2011, and the guy said he wouldn’t even give me a price on fixing that rust. He said that he could make it look good as new but it’d be back in two weeks. He blamed a defect in the design.
New Bumper
The first update that I attempted to make on the truck was the one that seemed straight-forward enough: replacing my rusted-out rear chrome step bumper with a new aftermarket one that I found online.
The new bumper came with the plastic step cover trim already installed, and included four brackets and a handful of nuts and bolts (though one nut short of having everything needed for installation).