Quality aftermarket bedsides

[oldno7]

Can anyone tell me about the quality of the aftermarket beds. The originals seem to have fallin of the earth. oldno7

[jimmydean]

Goodmark short wide fleet are very nice. Great fit and very well made. The don't make a long bed, and I have never used the step side.

[cstm68]

try lmctruck.com

[Aarons72s]

Yah the good mark ones are great! I put one on a 67 in 03. Here is a pick of 1. The bondo is from me welding in the marker light and filling the stake pockets was straight until I welded it! The only mod was a slight trim on the front bottom inner. Like a 1/8 had to cut off the bolt strip.

[oldno7]

Hey thanks for the pics, Looks pretty good. What are you putting the bed on? What project that is! I've heard good and bad about different sheet metal dist. I think the thicker gauge metal the better. Thier's a place in Indy or a Dist. I think he goes by GMC Pauls or something, he says he will only sell quality parts. It may be worth the drive after a little research. When you welded in your side marker lites, did you kinda spot weld them or bead weld them? It sounds like you may have gotten the metal to hot. It still looks good though. Wish I had a short fleet. oldno7

[PanelDeland]

oldno7, there are a lot of site supporting vendors.Almost all will have better pricing than LMC.Almost all offer discounts to BB members.Almost all go to swap meets and shows and may bring what you need to a show saving you drive time and shipping.Use the BB vendors whenever possible.Most of them build trucks also and will make the smart move of only using the best quality parts available.Almost everyone knows it's cheaper to start with good stuff than to repair tweak it to make it right.
That's my 2 cents./

[Aarons72s]

I welded it spot style on the lowest setting and had wet rags around it to try and keep the warping to a minuim but it still warped. Not real bad as the bondo is real thin. I just posted a build thread for this truck. I built it in 2003. Yah gmcpauls has that policy if you go on his web site. He even stopped carrying some parts do to they were junk. The major difference in sheet metal will be noticed in rockers. Some are just pathetic shredder food while others are thicker and heavier to original.

[BigSky71]

I went the same route as Aaron. The stock bedsides on the short bed I picked up were from some kind of Bondo experiment gone bad. I bought two aftermarket bedsides. I too got some warping welding in one of my markers, even though I though I was going slow enough. One the second one I spot welded about 4 times then took a ten minute break each time, much better.

I think the quality is fairly good, but even if you weren't shaving the markers and stake pockets you may need to fix a few areas to make it perfect. I don't intend to run tail light trim so I had to fix the thin strip of metal to the inside of the tail lights [the area in yellow in the pict], it had some wrinkles.

[oldno7]

That bedside looks to be perfect to me. Is that painted or primer? If it's primer the paint is going to rock! How would I go about finding these site supporting vendors. I'm kinda new here, and not quite sure how to get around the site yet. It's nice to see and get information that's for sure! If you could send a picture of that bedside on your truck I sure would like to see it. Everybody love pictures I'm just getting started oldno7

[BigSky71]

Originally Posted by oldno7

That bedside looks to be perfect to me. Is that painted or primer? If it's primer the paint is going to rock! oldno7

Thanks for the props. The bedside has been epoxy primed, blocked then because I had so much metal showing, epoxy primed yet again. Its a good thing I am not on the clock on this project, ha ha...

Added; unfortunately that bedside is still not installed. I plan to get the cab reinstalled and the front clip back on before I assemble the bed. Plus, the bed is much easier for me to store in pieces than it is assembled because I am working in a 2 stall garage.

[brak]

Originally Posted by oldno7

How would I go about finding these site supporting vendors. I'm kinda new here, and not quite sure how to get around the site yet.

At the top of each forum there is a thread called "support those who support us", it has a link to the list of site vendors. GMC Pauls, Brothers truck parts, and mar-k are site supporters (to name a few).

Good luck with your build, and rest assured, if you have a question, it can be answered on this site.