"They don't make them like they used to"... 15 spot welds drilled out along with a little cutting wheel action and the mangled stake pocket was removed. I just envision a young guy on an assembly line, cigarette hanging from his lip, tacking this thing down to never be removed.
This rear one was beat up pretty band and I decided to swap it out. Now that it's been removed, and I see the amount of rust under it, I've convinced myself to remove the front one... gently... and get busy on the rust removal there and spot weld it back down.
I may simply acid-wash and spray an encapsulate inside the bed rail "tube".
Should get frame back end of next week and will spray it ASAP.
