Hey Everybody, Time for an update. First the good: I've been working all summer on the bed metal. I replaced the front panel and the rear support. My last update I mentioned test fitting the boards. I notched the front of the passenger side angle strip to clear a bolt that attaches the front panel to the bedsides. I used screws and nuts to attach the strip. I also drilled out the holes on the bed wood and stained/sealed the holes. I haven't drilled for any of the bed to frame holes yet, as I still need to repair a fender and running board, which I need to positively locate the bed and holes. The bad: first pic shows the driver side fender mounting holes. Not much left of the surrounding metal.... The pic shows my taping off each area for cutting and replacement. The next pic just shows a patch tacked into place. I used the original piece as a template for locating the fender bolts hole. It could be off a little and might require some tweaking, but it should be close. Next pic shows the collection of what I cut out and replaced. Each one took a day to cut out, cut and fit the patch and then weld in the patch. It was slow going. But apparently not slow enough! The ugly: it seems as though I induced a massive warp into the bedsides! I've spent over a week trying all of the techniques to try and straighten the panel. My efforts resulted in mild success. It's far from perfect, but I'm going with it. Fourth pic is using the bed wood to verify, after measuring, that the wood still fits. It does. Last pic shows the warp. Sigh. It will impact a handful of the angle strip mounting screws. I could switch to same diameter, longer screws to at least make the connection. I'll see how it goes. I mounted the tailgate this afternoon. Next up: repair the fender and running board. Sorry for the long post. If I had the money, buying a whole new bed would have been the answer. However, this whole adventure has been on a shoestring budget. So whatever can be repaired must be. Onward and upward.
