bed skin replacement

[Mr Chevorlet]

Sorry for asking but I could not find any info on this. But is there a diagram on where the bed skins are welded on a fleet side long box. If so is there any pictures. Thanks

[chiefcfd]

If you are talking about the entire bedside it is only welded in one place, just inside the tailgate. I don't think you can buy just a skin.

[hugger6933]

The outer skin is welded to the inner but I don't think it was ever serviced like that from Chevrolet and I am pretty sure that no parts vendor does either. I have done a lot of bed skins on newer trucks like the 99-07 and a few 07 and newer and they are quite a easy repair, I wished that they dids make an outer skin as I coulduse a few my self. Now if you are talking about where the whole bedside is welded on to the box at there are just a few welds. One set is at the back on the square portion were the stake pockets are formed where they meet the bed floor. And another set up front sometimes by the front panel. Jim

[SS Tim]

Starfire58 has experience replacing bed skins might be worth dropping him a PM on the subject.

See here starting at post #13
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=551365

[Mr Chevorlet]

My dad had bed skins put on in the late 80's at a votec school so they said. But anyway the insides are really bad but the outside skins are good. And I have other bedsides I bought that I need to replace the top in a few areas by the stake pockets. And I was going to cut sections off of one and put on the other. And I didn't know if they were welded along the top by the stake pockets anywhere.

[mrein3]

Call me anal. Call me stupid. You can call me lots of things but here is what I did. ALL factory panels have this issue. There is NO paint between panels like on modern cars. Modern bodies are dipped in primer so the inside of all the nooks and crannies gets epoxy. In 1972 they got sprayed. On the outside only. That is why ALL rocker panels on these trucks are replaced or will need to be. You desert guys will get your chance, it will just take longer.

I purchased a dismantled bed off of craigslist. I was going to repair the aftermarket fuel door cutout out on the RHS, put the bed together, spray it my color, and call it a bed. Before I got around to it I happened to look inside one of the bedsides while it was propped upright in my shop. ICK! Thick, scaley rust throughtout the whole inside of the panel.

Now you guys with more money than time would simply look for a new panel that they recently came out with. Or get one shipped from the desert. But then you're still stuck with a panel that will rust from the inside out and in this moist Minnesota climate, it happens pretty fast.

I split the bedside, wirewheeled the rust off, did the PPG acid prep step following the directions on the bottle, masked off the places it needs to be welded back together, and epoxied EVERYTHING else. The places I masked I hit with rattle can weld-through primer.

Long story short, take a look at my pictures for where the spots are that need to be drilled out. I didn't take a picture of where the wheel arch is welded. Those are not spot welds but bird poop globs that you can see on any truck.

I hope the pictures help.

OK. Manage Attachments won't let me upload right now. I'll try the pix later...

[mrein3]

Picture try. Again.
Still no go. Pix under 100kb. Under 642 pixels wide. Restarted computer. Can send/receive other stuff. No clue.

[SS Tim]

Here is a picture of yours I found. Might help until you can get more or better posted.

[Mr Chevorlet]

Thanks Tim, but i cant seem to see any spot welds along the top inner edge on mine, i guess i will have to look harder. I just did not want to drill out what i cant see and make a cheese plate out of it.

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by SS Tim

Here is a picture of yours I found. Might help until you can get more or better posted.

SS Tim,
Thanks. That is what I'm trying to post. I went back to that "roll of film" and resized a few in Photoshop showing the spots I cut out. I'll try again...
Still no go. I've uploaded hundreds of photos here the same way. It gets to "Uploading File(s) - Please Wait" and spins there a while then comes back with and Internet Exploder error message.

I'll try later. I have some pretty good shots of all the spots I drilled out.

[SS Tim]

What works for me is clearing the temp files on the computer. But more directly is if it flubs like that just hit preview post the retry after it writes the preview.


As to finding the spots, your fingers will probably do better on the backside of the flange than eyeballing the front.

[mrein3]

Trying again...

Nope. I'm REALLY starting to think it is on the forum side and not mine. I've posted millions of pictures through the manage attachments. I can send/receive other data. I reset my DSL box. Uncle.

[mrein3]

OK. Here we go...
Still no go.
Hey mods, did you flip a can't post bit.
I click manage attachments. Browse to my pictures. Click Upload. Get the "Uploading File(s) - Please Wait" message, (in the mean time my DSL box shows no activity), then it times out. I'm stumped. I've posted tons of pictues the EXACT same way.
Pix under 100.0 KB. Less than 642 pixels wide. No go.

[mrein3]

Again?
I got em!
For whatever reason on this day this forum doesn't like .jpg files. I went into Photoshop, opened my .jpgs, saved them as .gifs and it worked!

The way to find the spot welds is to put a sandblaster or wire wheel or similar into your grinder and take the paint off where its spot welded. You'll see where each spot weld is. Use a spot weld cutter to cut the outer skin off the inside. I hope the .gif pictures are clear enough to see where I had to cut mine to get it apart.

Anal yes but 100 years from now there will be one bed in the junk yard that isn't rusted from the inside out.

Note the surface rust inside the bed panel before it got treated then coated with epoxy...

[Mr Chevorlet]

Thanks for the help guys. As for the compleate bed skin being relaced, i now know that they didnt, like they had said. After cutting into it i found that about four inches from the top all along the bed is where they cut and add skin from there down. or alot of patch panels. No biggie i am not using that bed for anything but patch panels anyway. Thanks again for the pictures Mrein3 They will come in handy.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I'm saving this thread.... planning on doing this to my bed sides.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Leonard1]

Holy cow, I just finished doing the same thing to my bedsides. Check it out:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=567307