The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Is this necessary?

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Rear fender plate obviously for running board, but is it necessary or would backed up bolts do? I haven't found replacements without buying a complete corner section. I could cut one, but wonder if my time is worth it in the long run.

As long as no one uses the step to load heavy stuff in the bed I see no problem... and repairing the distortion that could be caused by straining the metal as opposed to fabbing up a backing plate would only be about three times as long...

LOL. Good point.

I would fab up the reinforcement plates (and make them thicker than stock) and weld them on. There is a lot of stress here due to the fact that the running boards are mounted solid to the sturdy brackets that are riveted to the frame, while the rear fender is mounted to the bed which is mounted in a few locations on small wooden blocks which allows movement. All of the ADs I have worked on have wollered-out (Yes, that is a word where I come from, spell check be damned.) holes in this location. You need as much support in this area as you can come up with.