Should my dad cut out this dent and weld in a patch?

[HunterRotten]

My truck has dent that's been beat out on the driver side of the bed just infront of the wheel well. You can see where it's been beat out before and covered in bondo but it's just not smooth at all. Our plan is to cut it out and replace it with a key parts patch.

Is that the best way to fix it or should we try beating it out? Need some quick replies as we are in the garage working right now.

[bbbc10]

No pic is showing

[HunterRotten]

Originally Posted by bbbc10

No pic is showing

I had to run upstairs on my computer real quick, it wouldn't let me do it on my phone.


..and of course it's sideways when I upload it. There it is.

[Mr.Chevy4x4]

If there's no rust I would work it with a hammer and dolly before I would cut it out and replace it with inferior aftermarket sheet metal. A thin skim coat of body filler to achieve perfection is nothing to be worried about. All show cars have some body filler in them. Just my $.02.

Mike

[HunterRotten]

We'll give it a shot but a lot of it is behind that support piece on the inside of the wheel well, and some of it is on the lip that goes around the wheel well.

If anything we may consider to cut less, there is no rust that we can see there.

[Mr.Chevy4x4]

Take your time and be patient. A LOT of light blows it much better than a few heavy blows. You have to massage the metal back where you want it. May have to do a little shrinking too. Look up a youtube video on shrinking sheet metal. Not too difficult.

Mike

[wilkin250r]

And if the bondo isn't straight and smooth, then it's just a crappy bondo job, but that doesn't mean the metal is junk.

I think it's worth reworking, I wouldn't cut it out.

[HunterRotten]

Ground off all the Bondo, there is some rust on the bottom right edge of the fender that goes all the way through. Hole is not very big though. My dad seems to want to cut it out, we aren't that great with a hammer and dolly. He's giving it a try right now but I think we will cut out around the wheel well. I'd say about a 75% reduction in cut size from my initial tape line.

[Mr.Chevy4x4]

If you have to, you have to. I would save as much of the original sheet metal as possible though.

Mike

[HunterRotten]

He made the cut and has a patch ready to go for next weekend. The panel in this area was really warped and we found a couple of rust holes under the bondo. I'm glad he did because we found some light shining through some pin head sized holes in the bed half of the bed side.

This leads to my next wuestion, how should I go about cleaning up the rust that's actually inside the besides? It's pretty flakey in there. Is it best to leave it alone? I have some POR-15 degreaser, metal prep, the actual POR-15, and some of their "black chassis" paint to go over it for under the bed.

Do you think it would be okay to cram my arm in there (inside the bedside) with a wire brush and do my best to get all the loose stuff and then seal it with por-15?

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by HunterRotten

Do you think it would be okay to cram my arm in there (inside the bedside) with a wire brush and do my best to get all the loose stuff and then seal it with por-15?

This was exactly my plan for the same situation. Any bit of protection you get in there is better than what it is now.

[Dead Parrot]

If you have a power washer, stick the business end up there and spray everything. No sense in covering up years old salt and clay with por-15.

[LT7A]

Eastwood has a spray rust encapsulator where the spray head is on a tube. It's made to stick inside the holes in a frame to coat and encapsulate rust. You can use that where you can't reach with a brush or a normal spray can.