[mr.chevy]

Originally Posted by darrellyates

I used Goodmark. I got a complete bed. I am of the opinion (what the man asked for) that it was of pretty good quality. A little work on the rear corners to make the tailgate (also reproduction) line up properly. The bed sides were decently thick (originals were rusty). Of course, the bed sides had to be wiped and blocked. I also had to wipe and block the top rails too.

New metal doesn't mean no body work. I believe the reproduction stuff is of decent quality, and you don't have to worry about existing rust. I painted the inside of everything and am very content with the quality.

This is a subject of a great amount of discussion. I studied fender/hood and body gaps on a bunch of trucks. I also doubt there are multiple sets of tooling overseas producing parts (the tooling costs a BUNCH of money). I think either reproduction or original will work, you're just going to have to accept that body work will likely be required on either.

Depending on the condition of what you have, reproduction may cost less to fix than original. If you have the time and talent, work what you have. In my case, new bedsides were much, much less expensive.

Last point, there is a place in KC MO, AtoZ Sheetmetal that was running a $97 shipping special. I got a bunch of sheet metal for a Camaro, and the total shipping bill was like I said, $97 for truck freight. They have bed sides for our trucks as well.

Thanks for the info. Ill check into that. I realize its all going to take work no matter what I do. It's just time and I'm nor as skilled as I should be.