Well, my vendor sent me unpolished bed angle strips and not the steel angle strips I actually ordered. I didn't open the box for 8 months and I'm stuck with them. With shipping and the cost of reordering I need to make these work. I'm competent with my MIG welder with 75% / 25% Argon Co2. What do I need to know? I figure I'll have to rough them up to get paint to stick to them so discoloration from welding is not an issue with me. Stainless is 430 . Help!
Dusty, can you sandblast them...or someone that can. It'll give them enough tooth that the paint will stick.
Well after researching the welding and determining I need to get the correct filler wire, and then the time, travel , trial and error involved , I said to heck with it and ordered a set of steel angle strips from another vendor who had them in stock. I'm pretty sure I'd spent more money on just the filler wire and the gas to go get it....
You've already decided on a solution, but you could probably have someone spot weld the angle strips to your bedsides. The discoloration at the spot welds can be polished out with a wire brush on a rotary tool.
Maybe post he stainless strips in the Swap Meet in case anyone wants them.
I simply plug welded the strips to the bed, scuffed them down with 80 grit, then painted.
Seems to be holding up fine…
Mike
You've already decided on a solution, but you could probably have someone spot weld the angle strips to your bedsides. The discoloration at the spot welds can be polished out with a wire brush on a rotary tool.
Maybe post he stainless strips in the Swap Meet in case anyone wants them.
Kevin, good idea. Funny thing, the "shipping cost" varies greatly by supplier as does the cost for these angle strips.
I have no holes on my strips to mount to the bed side. I assumed I would need to drill and bolt to the bedside?
Are these supposed to be welded like OEM or can they be bolted?
They can be welded they .you can drill a hole in the box side and weld from the outside leaving the strip solid .On my 54 box side all but one hole is covered by the fenders or box side pocket .I think there is a write up on the mar k site.
On the ends where the stake pockets are, you'd have to drill the angle strip and weld from the inside, unless you are better than me at getting a MIG gun inside the stake pocket.
