Couldn't get a picture of the elbow grease.

White paint on bottom of liner.

Everything left is either raw metal or rust. Was hoping for it to clean up a little better. I guess spray in bed liner is the way to go. I can't have black in south Louisiana. I saw rattle can bed liner in white, with a bed mat should be good.

 

Previous owner had it slightly squatted (yeeyee'd) I fixed that. Torsion bar adjustment.

 

My 2010 Colorado had the factory bed-liner but I bought a camper shell pretty quickly. I did however periodically clean under the liner by sliding a 2x4 under it, straight up the middle length wise, towards the cab. I would also park uphill then get the water hose out. I would let it dry as long as possible before removing the 2x4.

You will get a rougher ride with torsion bars cranked up, but does look better. Your motor is a 5.3L (LH8 code), not 5.7, also doesn't have VVT.

 

Deleting the drop in liner was the first thing I did on mine. There was an absurd amount of dirt and grit under there and I was lucky that nothing got rusty. I put it up on craigslist for free and someone took it within 12 hours, so I hope it made someone happy.

 

I strongly recommend the Raptor Brand spray on liner. (Amazon) Comes in white and is pretty easy to apply. I did my whole truck with it between the white and black. If you have a decent air compressor you can DIY if you get the kit with the schutz gun with it. With your short box 4 bottles will do it plenty.
Definitely need to prep, clean, and do a rust converter on the bare/rusted spots. It will be a full weekend project, but i guarantee you that you will be glad you did.

The Raptor Liner is a 2k paint, so it cures nice and hard. Yeah i have chipped mine on rare occasion with sharp metal edges, but it touches up real easy. Just blob it on with a foam brush to create the texture and done, darn near invisible. Buy a respirator if you dont have one, the fumes are no joke. They do have cans now, but I have not tried it. They are expensive, and its not that hard to mix up a batch of the regular stuff and shoot it.

The rattle can liners I have had less success with. The rubberized ones arent durable enough for any kind of abuse, and the more paint like brands are too thin to be useful. Rhino is great stuff but very pricey.

I keep my plastic liner in case I have to haul like a load of dirt or gravel, or lots of sharp things. But it mostly just sits behind the shed....

 

This is what the texture will look like with that product.
The white shows dirt more than I expected, it kinda holds it in the grain of the paint. You can power wash it though. I foamy scrub brush and some dish soap will work great in the bed.

 

Lol, I just did the same thing this morning. Great minds think alike. I found a 11/16 craftsman socket from the previous owner 😁