Dunce's 59 Fleetside build

[dunce79]

Bought a pair of trucks out of Florida. One is a 1958 Fleetside and the other a 1959 Big Window stepside (with incorrect later model stepside bed). Building the Big window with a fleetside bed.
-73 Camaro subframe
-Fatbar link
-motor undecided at this point.
-low but not slammed.. more of a muscletruck look
-fauxtina with a dark blue being the base color
-fixing all the rust/dusts but don't want a high dollar paint job, may even paint it myself.. have done two other cars and I just want something cool I'm not afraid to beat on.

Just getting started. I've been at it about 5-6 weeks now and I'll be posting more pix soon to catch this up as a build thread. But here's what day one looked like. Cab is decent but bed was really rough. That rust on the spears was not fun to fix and one of the bedsides was basically swiss cheese after stripping the paint off.

[dunce79]

Here's the swiss cheese beside

[dunce79]

The other side wasn't so bad. Just needed the lower rear section replaced along with the top of the spear. I cut out the bad metal, formed some patches and welded them in.


To fix the spears I basically had to disassemble the entire thing as well as cut out that inner section to get access to the seam.




screwed it back together before welding the patch in place in hopes that would help prevent warpage and keep things where they need to be. It came out pretty good. A little bumping after finishing the welds and a very small amount of filler should take care of the imperfections.

[dunce79]

Had to do some repairs on the top section and brace of this bedside as well.










Rassembled, just need to fab a new inner panel and weld it in (part that the bedwood attaches to).

[dunce79]

Rust can kiss my A**.

[dunce79]

This was insane, I know. better ways to do this I'm sure. I read on here that patch panels for the later model bedsides fit.. Well, they kinda do. The rear lower corners are close enough but not quite long enough. I made it work but if I do it again it would probably be easier to just try and fab a patch out of one sheet.











I did brace this side when replacing that big section around the middle.

[dunce79]

Starting work on the other lower corner.







After I got into it I decided I had to go further up to get some of the badly pitted metal out of there.





Using sections from a longbed side to fix the bottom of the wheel lip. My donor wasn't in that great of shape either.





insanity

[lynx5653]

looking good

[Kim57]

Very nice repair work.
Keep the pics coming.
Kim

[ricott]

Good looking project you have. Thanks so much for the picture tutorial on the lower bed repair - I love the way you have gotten that metal back into shape. My fleetside has almost the same issues, but the bed repair is a long way off. If you don't mind saying, where did you purchase the repair panels? Thanks again.

Ricky

[dunce79]

Using a piece from my donor to fix the lower front section of this bedside. It was banged up and a little rusty but I made it work. I found out later that it might be possible to use the small rocker repair patches to replace the lower section.












Then decided the bottom section of my patch was just too far gone to use and patched that. ugh.

[dunce79]

Ricky, after I bought the truck I was able to score 2 sets of long bedsides that I planned to use to make repair panels or cut/section them down. After evaluating what I had I decided to fix my existing bedsides and I've been able to do it with cutting up just one of the long bedsides so I can sell them to someone else who may need them. No patch panels being reproduced yet that I"m aware of. Like I said though.. the lower rear sections from 60-66 patch panels can be used in that area if you want.. but almost easier to just form them from flat sheet metal now that I've been there, done that.

Originally Posted by ricott

Good looking project you have. Thanks so much for the picture tutorial on the lower bed repair - I love the way you have gotten that metal back into shape. My fleetside has almost the same issues, but the bed repair is a long way off. If you don't mind saying, where did you purchase the repair panels? Thanks again.

Ricky

[dunce79]

Finishing the welds on the lower rear section









And the front









The backside. saw some bigger pits that didn't go all the way through. rather than try and fill them with the MIG I decided to cheat a bit and put in some metal filler. Hopefully that doesn't bite me later.

[ricott]

Thanks for the reply and for the "heads up" on possibly using a rocker to replace the lower front of the bedside. I definitely plan to see if that idea will work.

[dunce79]

Now it was time to fix the upper panel and brace as well as the bed rail. Oh and the back top section of the spear. Oh and a small section at the front of the spear ; ).

[dunce79]

My inner panels were too far gone so I decided to take them to a local fab shop and have some new ones bent up. To save a little $ I just had them cut and bend them. Figured I could cut the wheel opening and drill the holes ect to match the originals.







Primed and painted the inside of the new panel. leaving the exposed site bare metal for now. Not sure what I'm doing inside the bed just yet.



Making the square holes was interesting but I drilled the hole with a normal bit as big as possible and then used a die grinder at weird angles to make the holes square and made sure the bolts fit snug. Probably could have had the fab shop punch them out, but what fun is that? ; )










And with the inner panels plug welded back into place. Thats a wrap on the bedsides. Not pictured is some hammer/dolly work on the bed corners which were badly dented. I'm not an expert at that stuff but I think I have them good enough for body work now.

This was 6 weeks of working nearly every night after my normal job and on weekends. Usually until 11-12 at night. There were spots when I was pretty sick of it but now that they are done I'm energized to move on to fitting the bed and getting my suspension sorted out. It will be fun to see the bed on the truck for the first time and start thinking about wheels/tires/stance.

[dunce79]

Bought an "excellent" original tailgate off ebay. Not so excellent after 5 layers of paint and 3/4 inch of bondo removed in spots. But I'm gunna save it. Originally thought I'd pull the dents but I don't think thats gunna be the best bet for me (Maybe someone else). So I'm going to cut the bad sections out, get it straight and then put in patches that go halfway around the round edge. My seam will be there and not visible if it doesn't turn out so well. But I think with the thicker metal here and some patience I can make it invisible.

[FarmerSid]

Awesome metal work! Only way to get good at it is to do it!

[ChuckDriver]

Nice job on the bedside repair!

[Kim57]

Very nice repair work.
You have some great skill.
Kim

[_Ogre]

nice repair work on those bed sides

[RockinKees]

Awsome fabrication work!!
Subscribed to this one

[Mr.Jones]

Outstanding work!!!

[dunce79]

Did a little work on the tailgate, repaired the bed sills and setup a DIY media blasting booth big enough for the whole truck. Tailgate came out ok but not as well as I had hoped. Shrinkage left me with a low spot that I'm just going to have to use some filler in. Don't think I'll attempt the rest of it since I'll be using filler anyway. If it doesn't come out well enough, I'll buy a new one.

Shaping the patch using the tailgate

[Kim57]

Nice job on the repairs.
With the right ventilation you could use it as a paint booth also.
Kim