yes i've posted my quite a few times.. haha lol but i really got to thinking about the "ripple" in my truck today and started grinding the paint off for bodywork.. came up with my options and need some input on them please.. here's what im starting with



the ripple is starts about 1/2 way down the bed and goes to the taillight, above light and below it needs to be fixed..

now my options:


option A- is to find another whole regular bed (not a flareside/stepside) and replace bed or find one that has a fubar'd driver's side and a good pass side. and thats really cheap -under 100 bucks.

option B- pull bed off frame and set it on sawhorses and have at it with a hammer and dolly (already started the hammer and dolly work)

option C- if find a fubar'd one, cut out the section i need and weld it on to replace mine

option D- is to get some new sheetmetal cut it to size and make/match the body line. i have access to tools that can do this.

dont have a lot of money.. i only get 235 bucks canadian a month after i pay rent, out of that i have to pay for my truck and my visa. so im looking for the cheapest way to make this thing look good again. im going to start with option A for a couple months and see what i can find.. my area sucks on craigslist, its all friggin tires and crap i've been looking. Hopefully i can find one for like 50-75 bucks thats fubar'd and cut what i need and take the rest of it to the scrap yard.

what would you guys do if you were in my shoes and on my tight *** budget? im not scared to do bodywork i've done plenty of it, just have to "pick" the times i spread filler as it HATES the cold.

 

Your best option is to replace it, but if you cant find one for half cheap it is repairable if you have the know-how. Take that flare off, hammer out what you can, strip the paint, weld up those bullet holes or whatever they are. By the looks of it its not worth welding in a new section, you will still have a bit of bodywork after the welding to make it look good, and then you get into warping unless your good at welding sheet metal, and corrosion issues in the weld areas and all that fun stuff. So ya, weld those holes, hammer it out the best you can, give it a skim of filler, block it out, primer, paint etc and if you do it all properly it will look like new!

 

^^^^ thats what i was thinking too..
the bottom part will be fairly easy, the top part is going to be a *****. im hoping to just replace it if i can. the fender flare is already off, tail light is out. i can easily get to about half way up the side.. there's a nice straight dent( looks like someone took a metal bar and swung it like a baseball bat into the truck) under the tail light that i cant get to, so i was thinking about cutting the section out, smooth it out the best i can and weld it back on. if it turns out looking like *** i'll just replace the whole bedside.. i looked on LMC's website and they are expensive for a new bedside. i have know how to do the work i just wanted some opinions haha.. i took an autobody class in school and they taught you how to do all that stuff.

EDIT: here's what that little dent under the taillight looks like

there's no way of getting anything behind it.. the only options are to cut it out, then smooth it, then weld back in and throw some filler over the whole area. or option A in my first pic... stupid trees GRRR!!!

 

option A

 

A

 

I kinda like the banged up look , leave it alone girls dig scars

 

slide hammer for the section below the the taillight if you cannot get in behind it with a hammer and the rest do with a hammer and dolly. just remember to start from the outside of the dent and work towards the middle. looks like you got a little excited with the hammer and dolly and just went at it. if you work slowly form outside in, you minimize the distortion and warping in the sheet metal, not to mention the stretching that occurs.

good luck...

 

huh??? i didnt get the dent to where it is now.. my dad did and he didnt use a hammer and dolly.. i know how to fix it properly..

 

ya ya... blame the old man. you probably had a few kokanee's and went to town. just joking.

hope your dad didnt do to much damage cause it is looking kinda chewed up. hard to tell from the picture though. im in a similar situation as i too have a dent on my passenger side and some rust creeping in of the wheel well. plus the body panel is slowly starting to sheer back. arg!!... unfortunately, i dont have access to the tools i would need anymore, so im probably gonna have to pay someone to deal with it. maybe have them repaint the whole truck while im at it...

 

Option A...or Option E Flared Fiberglass Bedsides! ( But would be more money then just getting a whole other bed thats in good shape!)

 

ya im really hoping for option A to work out... haha.. nope i didnt get it to where its now.. there's no rust on my truck except the surface rust on the frame.. thats it.. if i cant find a bedside i'd like to just cut it out and smooth it out then weld it back in and im confident that i can keep the warping down to a minimum.... it crushed it in so far that the inside of the bed is dented too.. here's a picture of what it looked like




and stuck out like a sore thumb


course about a month or so later after i did this i had to move 50 bales of hay from down the road (about 1 km from my house) to my neighbours barn.. so i grabbed the truck went to the little store 3kms down the road, grabbed a 6 pack of brewski's and loaded hay. i made sure that i covered up the missing taillight hole as best i could even though there arent many cops come down this road. definitely didnt need a ticket haha.

im not in a big hurry to fix it. it looks like *** still but it looks WAY better than it did.

 

Actually I retract my previous statement that I would fix that after seeing that partially fixed already! and what it did look like before haha that thing is toast. You "could" hammer it out and fill it but odds are its going to be a bit of a butcher job and will crack/rust out soon enough. If you care about the fix quality you are going to need a new bed or at least bedside if you can find one to weld in.

 

ya i agree... i do care what it the end result looks like. i did both bedsides (in the same exact places) on my S10 in the winter and its now starting to crack and peel away.. the s10 is up for sale and it looks like poop, so im considering re-doing some of it not all of it tho.. i got the sides pretty damn straight though i was impressed!! also had to heat and shrink the dent a bit then finish hammering it out and add the filler.

on the ranger, ya i did a gooder on this one.. oops.. i damn near cried after i did it.. haha.. it was not fun.. hit the store grab some more beers and went back to a friends house across the road lol. i think if im going to smooth it out, im going to hammer and dolly it out during the winter and then wait until it warms up again in the spring and add the filler. unfortunately i dont have a heated shop i could do the work in and leave it in there. kinda sucks.

 

nice i had the same kind of dent in my old 1 s10 but i got mine from drifting and hit a nice pile of softsnow but there happend to be a mic d*cks trash can in the snow pile dang mic d*cks lol sorry just had to say that

 

^^^ haha..

i think im going to cut the bottom part below the tail light out (make the cuts in an area where it will be easy to weld back in and away from the bodylines) and smooth it out then weld it back in and spread bondo on the whole corner..

 

sounds like you have more time than money. I would also agree with option A if and only if you can find a bed for cheap. If not I would not be scared to go at it with the hamer and dolly.

 

^^^^^ why yes i do!!! hahaha

right now hammer and dolly has started.. the way i see it right now, is i'll continue with the hammer and dolly (all i got is time invested) and if i find a decent bedside i will get it and slap the sob on.. if not... oh well..... w/e right?? haha i got a half decent smoothed bedside.

im jobless right now and deff have more time than money. haha.. im really considering cutting the shatty section out, smoothing it out, the welding it back on.