The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Best option to roll the sheet metal to form AD bed

Hi guys I dont want spend 550 bucks to buys the bed side wall per side, instead, can I buy sheet metail and roll and the end and bend at an angle and make my own bed wall.

Is there any cheap tool to roll like that or am I completely insane.

Thanks for all the suggestions

Ganesh

$550 per side? Check other vendors. I had a local sheet metal place quote me to make bedsides and the roll presented a challenge for them. They wanted more to form the side panel than I paid for the whole thing complete with stake pockets and holes.

Instead of rolling the end why not weld a piece of steel tubing on? Might be a bit time consuming but you might not have an option... the tooling to make that roll isn't something you find every day.

If you can reuse the roll from your sides. Cut the top of the bed about an inch below the bend and get sheet metal cut with an offset bent along the top. Weld it in with the offset to the outside from the inside of the bed. I am only welding about a 4" wide strip in where the bed side rails attached and rusted out. I will butt weld this but the offset may help reienforce the top. Rolling your own would be a real chore and probablly not something that I would try. Weld slow short beads. I like to tack each end of a long ewld then the center then the center of of the two halves then the center of the four quarters etc... Then you have to deal with the bottom.

Good luck

hmmm I would probably repair the side wall because it has been rusted out where the angle strip was orginally welded. I would cutt of all the bottom of the rusted area and add that piece alone

Thanks for your suggesstions

Ganesh

I am in the same situation w/my 54 3100. I think having the whole bed apart it will just be easier to breakdown and buy the parts new and start fresh. It will be tough parting with the cash, but it is the end result I am investing in.

'54 - '87 step-side beds are all the same design I think. The different models have different holes for their fenders, but those could be filled in, and holes matching the '48 - '54 rear fenders could be drilled. I think the beds are wood up to '72... Worth a try, maybe?