Bed Floor Repair question

[bhemingson]

The bed on my 1972 is solid except for a line of rust that goes straight across the bed just in front of the inner wheel tubs. Is possible to just cut that out of another bed and weld it in? I am going to paint it not bed liner.

[Hair]

That's strange, is there a bed rail directly under that? Makes me wonder why it rusted there only. My truck is a wood bed, someone else will know more than me as to why it rusted just there, but as far as welding a new strip out of another bed, I don't see why not. Should go good. Poke around on the rest of it with a screw driver to make sure that the rest of the floor is solid. Shouldn't be any trouble at all.

[zosoppp]

They sell a patch panel of corrugated floor material you could piece together, but definitely check out the bottom first to see if it's the cross brace underneath that also needs to be repaired or replaced.

here's a sample link for the floor patch panel:

https://www.carid.com/1970-chevy-ck-...parentsubmodel[]=MODEL|C10+Pickup


This one is apparently for square bodies.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/a...BoC5cMQAvD_BwE

[saxart]

My bed has the EXACT same type of rust in the same location. It appears as though the bed rail support underneath has gotten filled up with crud over the years and held in moisture. Hence the rust. My bed floor also has some lesser rust at the back, just before the tailgate. Does yours have the same? There are a couple of options I've thought about doing:

1) Leave it as is. It's solid everywhere else.

2) Buy a reproduction bed floor. (Not cheap!)

3) Buy reproduction bed floor patch panels (and a new under cross-rail) and weld them in. (I've heard the contour of the repro patch panels don't match the contour of the original bed-floor. True?

4) Find a good used bed floor with enough solid "meat" to use as replacement material for welding in the spots that need to be replaced. (Will probably need a repro replacement cross sill to make it work)

I'm curious what you decide to do, so keep us posted.

[bhemingson]

Originally Posted by saxart

My bed has the EXACT same type of rust in the same location. It appears as though the bed rail support underneath has gotten filled up with crud over the years and held in moisture. Hence the rust. My bed floor also has some lesser rust at the back, just before the tailgate. Does yours have the same? There are a couple of options I've thought about doing:

1) Leave it as is. It's solid everywhere else.

2) Buy a reproduction bed floor. (Not cheap!)

3) Buy reproduction bed floor patch panels (and a new under cross-rail) and weld them in. (I've heard the contour of the repro patch panels don't match the contour of the original bed-floor. True?

4) Find a good used bed floor with enough solid "meat" to use as replacement material for welding in the spots that need to be replaced. (Will probably need a repro replacement cross sill to make it work)

I'm curious what you decide to do, so keep us posted.

Thanks. I am going to take it off and get it blasted I think. I sold a 1972 Chevy to my brother. That bed is so shot he's going wood bed. I will see if I can salvage patches off his old bed. I will post the results as I make progress