Chopping the bed floor, making a rolled over rear edge

[clay68c10]

If anyone is wondering what it looks like with the extra cross brace at the rear, here it is.
And no, I haven't cut the frame yet.

[clay68c10]

And the former 2nd cross brace at the front is already in the right position as the new first cross brace. It will just need to be drilled and a sleeve installed.

[hewittca]

That rear edge is looking good! Man I wish I went this route now. Then I wouldn't have the seam I have now on the bed floor, which would be great since I am not painting it to keep the originality of it.

Do the second set of mounts on your frame have the elongated holes in them for bolting the floor down? I find it curious that GM would eliminate the carriage bolts there in later trucks, since mine had them.

[clay68c10]

Thanks, I'm happy with it so far. It is just the bed floor after all, and a common rot spot is eliminated this way.

My frame already has the holes in the 2nd row stands. It is a 68 frame. It had a long step bed on it originally, I don't remember if bolts were in there or not. It's been sitting since 2003 at my buddy's place in Wyoming.

[clay68c10]

I made a little more progress on the floor, the rear cross sill had some fairly large areas rusted out. I made some patches and welded them in. Nothing fancy, this is good practice for me, my sheet metal welding is a little rusty (haha).
After the patches, we did a little cleanup.

[clay68c10]

And a shot of the patches. One side is huge, the other is a little smaller. And no, I didn't do a lot of finishing work on these, they just need to be in there.
I'll hit them with some weld thru primer, which will be more than the factory did.

[clay68c10]

On the outer edges of the floor there's a cut out notch and the ribs in the metal are flattened out. I wasn't sure what to do with this area, so I figured that more hammer was the answer.
I used my RR track pieces as a backer to hold the shape of the long rib halfway and just started experimenting. I have a square face body hammer, it worked the best to form the corner and lay down the narrow rib.
This is obviously different from the factory stamping, but it works for me.
And it's not rotted away...

[clay68c10]

So, the shape isn't exactly the same, but it will work. Anyone that really knows these trucks will be able to see the difference. But at my level of skill, rescuing old junk on a skeleton budget, I'm happy with it.

[Big Block]

Look good to me. You're doing something most people would never attempt. You have the satisfaction of doing it yourself. Priceless.

[FL71C10]

I think it looks good!

[clay68c10]

Thanks folks, it's been nice trying things out and having them turn out ok. If I was starting with something nicer I'd be reluctant for fear of messing something up.
Here's the sill pieces I cut out, just so anyone with the rear bed floor rust can know what is waiting underneath. The rot was definitely more extensive in the sill top than the bed floor.

[67 chevelle]

looks great

[clay68c10]

Making slow progress, but it is coming along.

I drilled a hole in each rib to attach the floor to the rear sill. Before I plug welded each hole, I clamped the floor down to the sill. This helped even out the distortion caused when I hammered over the edge.

[clay68c10]

So, I now have the sill attached all the way across. The edge is pretty straight now, it's still not as uniform as the factory edge but I think this will work.

[clay68c10]

For a sanity check, I hung the bed sides on it. Everything measured out ok, but the proof is in the fitment when it comes down to it. It all lined up ok, so I'm happy with it.

This is also a good motivator for me, having a ton of unassembled parts on a truck that doesn't drive can be disheartening. It's good to see it look like an actual bed.

[clay68c10]

Just as reference for anyone wanting to do this, I used weld thru primer on the cross sill. The welds went better when I scraped away the primer with a pocket screw driver. I got some popping on the one I didn't scrape.
I didn't get all of it, but most. I figured it's still some protection since where I removed it is now a cooled weld puddle, and it's still on the remaining surface surrounding the weld area.

[Boog]

Not a thing wrong with that.