How would you repair this?

[masters]

This is the bed I plan on using if I don't run into too many issues. So far the biggest thing I have found is behind the passenger side wheel and both wheel tubs need to be replaced. I am probably going to tear the bed down into each individual piece and get one piece finished at a time.



Any pros or cons to tearing a bed apart to repair?



This is the bottom of the back corner right behind the wheel. There is also a hole on each side of the wheel well where I'm assuming marker lights were once there and has been filled in with Bondo.



How would you repair this? Patch panel?

[77ChevySharkBite]

Welcome to the Forum!

What would greatly help us all first would be let us know the year of your truck. On my 77 I didn't have any marker lights.

I have a 77 I recently took the bed apart in pieces myself the only issue I really ran into was the seam weld on the back of the bed where the stake hole is. Other than that it was just tedious work of unbolting all the bolts that was holding everything together.

[Keith Seymore]

Can't really tell what I'm looking at (needs to be zoomed out a bit) but here are a couple thoughts:

a) There are no side marker lights on the pickup box. They are incorporated into the taillight lens/housing (so they are part of the way the taillight wraps around the corner).



b) I did a patch panel behind the wheel on my pickup box. Details are in my build thread (linked below, page 4):

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Here's my victim for this weekend. Installed the patch panel on the pickup box behind the left rear wheel....



Here's the panel after it's cut out, and with the patch panel from LMC:







This little bracket doesn't offer much structure! Like a dummy I forgot to paint it after I cleaned the rust off of it and before I installed the patch. After I was done I tried jamming Rustoleum red metal primer up there with a brush. That will have to do, I guess.





This is after it is "flanged"



...and screwed and bonded in place. Sort of a "Frankentruck" appearance!





Incidently, I made those cuts so that they will be covered by the wheel opening molding and body side trim (across the top) and somewhat obscured by the bumper (along the back).

The first photo I posted can be used as the "after" pic.

K

[masters]

The bed is off an '86 crew 1-ton, cab is a '84 C-10, and the frame will be a single wheel LWB 1-ton. When it's all said and done it will be a 1-ton LWB 4WD truck. I know the side marker lights are incorporated into the tail lights, I'm assuming someone had installed the small lights like what you see on dually fenders onto this bed and then removed and Bondo the holes. The pic of the rust is the very bottom of the fender right behind the tire. If I do a patch panel it will come off another bed and be welded in.

[Brockwaykid]

Originally Posted by masters

The bed is off an '86 crew 1-ton, cab is a '84 C-10, and the frame will be a single wheel LWB 1-ton. When it's all said and done it will be a 1-ton LWB 4WD truck. I know the side marker lights are incorporated into the tail lights, I'm assuming someone had installed the small lights like what you see on dually fenders onto this bed and then removed and Bondo the holes. The pic of the rust is the very bottom of the fender right behind the tire. If I do a patch panel it will come off another bed and be welded in.

my 75 has very similar rust there, and a little along the top of the arch. thanks for posting, and also thanks to Keith!
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[tony58]

I would have the bed media blasted to bare metal, you may have other issues that you haven't noticed.