[landarts]

Going back to the picture in thread post #21 where the forward lower section of the drivers side bed metal was torn just aft of the inner fender brace. When I looked under the bed brace was missing. That section of the bed is prone to buckling and oil canning without that brace especially if there is a dent or buckle. I started to get the tear cleaned up so it could be welded back together. Once I got so far with it I could tell that I would need to get a brace on it in order for the repair to work.

Went out to the side yard will I store extra parts for these trucks. Over the last two years I have purchased a few truck beds, so I removed one off a drivers side that had a pretty good whamo up front, so no big deal since this bed was strictly for parts anyways. So in the shop I noticed it had a few waves in it so I straighten it the best I could and noticed the end that bolts to the fender is missing. So I cleaned up the metal to get it ready to weld. I found a good thick sturdy washer and welded it to the brace then used the bench grinder to clean it up and get it to look something like it should.

After getting it on the truck and bolted to the fender it made the area very ridged and was able to finish up with the hammer and dolly to get the metal closer to where it needed to be to finish the welding. After that I worked the area for several minutes to get metal moving in the right direction so it could be ready for filler. A few more minutes with an air grinder and 60 grit hard disc on it reveals a boat load of high and lows.

The bottom section that turns in toward the frame at the bottom was very wavy in both directions. I tackled this area with a 24" piece if scrap 2x4 and a rubber mallet to get it closer to where it should be. Then worked there area with a hammer and dolly, mostly dolly on hammering. All of this work on the lower section is about 2 hours or so worth of work at this point. I will try laying in some filler and see if this repair will past the test or will need to cut out the lower section and replace with a repair panel that is showing up this week sometime from my order. If it past the test I will have an extra repair panel for another truck in the future.