Rear Roll Pan Installation Question

[buildinga55]

I got a rear roll pan for the 48 today and it has the recessed license plate area. I am looking at the installation of this and it looks like you have to cut the center section out of the original rear pan to make this work. Does that sound right, or does anyone have any pictures of their install? Thanks

[FiftyTwo]

Yep, you need to cut a small notch out for the recessed part of the roll pan to fit.

[50adrod]

yes, I had to cut a notch in my rear cross support to have clearance for the license plate recess also

[1950 GMC]

Buildinga55, Take a lot of pics while doing this, and post them. I would love to see how you do this.

[buildinga55]

I took some pictures of my rear pan installation. The pan does require the notch cut as mentioned before for the recessed license plate. I would suggest you don't cut the hole much bigger than the license plate recess as you do attache a bolt right above it and need some metal to bolt to. I used an air hacksaw. Worked good. I was undecided about using a bumper along with the roll pan. I have seen a few of them and liked the look. I also had thought about tucking my rear bumper in a couple of inches closer to the rear end for a little more custom look. I found that if you want to use the rear bumper in the stock position you would have to notch your roll pan as the bumper brackets hit the roll pan. So I did not really want to notch my roll pan. So, I decided to install the roll pan and modify the frame rail so that I could pull my bumper in a little closer to the truck and not have to notch the brand new roll pan. That way if I ever decide to remove the bumper, the roll pan does not have any notches. I like the way it turned out.

Here is the pictures of the roll pan installed, it is pretty straight forward after you cut out the license plate;

I really like the way the side of the roll pan covers up the frame rail;
This is under the truck before I cut the frame piece out so that the bracket would not hit the roll pan, this brought the bumper about 2" closer to the bed;


Here is the bumper bracket mounted


Here is the bumper mounted

[buildinga55]

Here are a couple of pictures of the truck at Classic Part with the roll pan and rear bumper. I am pretty sure he left his bumper stock and notched the roll pan, but I did not look that close when I was there.

[1950 GMC]

55, Thanks for all the info and pics it looks good!