Do these kick panel look welded?

[ubtripn]

Hi Guys,

Can you tell if this kick panel is aftermarket and has been welded in? The pic is from before I got the truck and it has been painted since. It looks like burn marks from welding are present and if you look closely there are little dimples that may be rivets. What do you think? There is also a seam 90% down, do all trucks have that?

[my67chevytruck]

do you have a closeup of that area?

[ubtripn]

I wish I did but these were the only pics take before they painted it.

[storm9c1]

I find it odd that if the kick panel was welded in, it wouldn't be painted the same color. Since it looks like the color matches everything else, then I would venture a guess that the black you see is overspray from perhaps the floor pans? Or maybe the floor pans were welded right below there?

Either way, that kick panel would have been repainted AFTER it was welded in, so it's impossible in my mind for these to be burn marks from welding the kick panel itself.

[ubtripn]

Ahhh, VERY good point. Does your truck have that little line or seam close to the bottom?

[Classic Heartbeat]

If I had to hazzard a guess, it looks like it has been repaired at one point. You have a horizontle line toward the bottom that wouldn't be present if they were not repaired. WES

[1949gmc]

^^^^ I agree with Wes. You can see that something has been done there.

[ubtripn]

That is what I thought, thanks everyone!

[storm9c1]

Me thinks that the seam is interesting too but I can't put my finger on it by the lack of detail in those pics. It almost looks to me that a whole floor pan section may have been welded in (which isn't unheard of on these trucks since I've seen many hollow-floored trucks laying to rest). If so, then perhaps the whole top section was cut at the firewall all the way around? Either way, that kind of work would have needed to be done BEFORE it was painted that orange color since it all matches now.

[ubtripn]

Thanks for the info, I wish I could have just took a long look before they covered it up.

[69lemans]

My guess is the floor has been patched,as it is a common place to have rust in the floor there,and the dimples you see in the kick panel are spot welds from where the kick panel was welded in at the factory. Just my $.02

[mclairmo]

From the paint it looks factory to me. Those are not burn marks, likely overspray from paint or undercoating. That horizontal line does not look like a weld or rivet seam to me. Might be a crease from something hitting it or maybe some other stain, mark, or optical illusion. You would think that if a repair was done there (weld or rivet) it would have been covered with plastic filler to look better or if it was not covered/filled then I would think it would look even worse than the pic shows. You should be able to examine the underside of the floors to see if any patching was done. If there is no sign of rust repair anywhere else then why would the kick panel be repaired? However, if there are multiple rust repairs all over the cab, then maybe the floor in that area or the kick panel was repaired, too.

[ubtripn]

I didn't even think of that!! I'll just crawl underneath and take a look. Thanks!

[extd56]

Looks like paint to me, maybe soemone painted the floor.

[ubtripn]

I think they did.

[70shortfleet]

There shouln't be any kind of seam 90% down on the kick panel, it sounds like it has been patched at the very bottom and did you check the other side to see if it looked the same?