Hi, I'm Matt, Last year I traded in my 2009 Kia Rio for a 2003 Ranger Edge. I discovered about a week later (we only have 3 days for "buyers remorse" in KY), when I jumped up in the bed and almost went through the bottom. that the entire underside was rusted away. (my fault for buying too fast and not checking it out better).

Anyway, after shopping around for replacement beds and not finding any decent ones for less than $1200, I decided DIY would be better or in this case DIY using dad's carpentry skills.

We removed the bed and the story got worse.. not only were the bed's cross members gone, the rear passenger-side of the frame was pretty much gone as well. See pics. We ended up ordering some custom plate and new saddle joints and rebuilding the frame (using Dad's machinist mechanic skills :)

Then we built a new wooded flat-bed on it, with removable sides and tailgate.

All told, total cost was less than $500. And I's now a truck I really love!

It has issues still for sure, which I'll be posting about looking for answers, but it's still a great little truck for having 215k miles!

Matt

Bed Removal
Rust
More Rust
New Plate Installed
End Result (With Smoker )