wow, its been a while since I last posted, but the project is still on: or back on again.....
the old bed on the Dakota finally gave up and had to come off....which forced my motivation level back up to getting this thing done!
Here's the old bed on the lift. It was very close to the cab so I had to lift it at a slight angle to get it to clear the rear panel and glass...slow going, but I'm grateful for the lift!
Not much left of it!
The frame is crusty, but very few worry spots!
You probably noticed that rear cab corner is toast also.....yep...but I finally splurged and got a replacement panel...holding it up to the truck, it appears to fit very well!
Back to work on the bed:
I started on the panel sections that I could finish to feel accomplished!
There were two larger areas that needed attention, so I did those next...
the inner wall behind the inner fender was toast for some reason...maybe because of a leaky bed top.....
and the floor at the trailing edge...a pretty common area for corrosion.
I had to cut the floor out, then cut the bed support. the metal was thicker that made up the support piece so welding went pretty well.....The inner bed side was a challenge in that there were 3 pieces that had to be patched back in. Luckily, they were all pretty much flat....
I saved the front wall of the old bed and used part of that to make a patch for the bed floor repair. The pattern is not exactly the same as it is on the floor, but the spacing is spot on....it will work!
some Zinc primer-weld through style
and my floor patch....
well that brings us up to date....just got my booster shot today so wanted to get a bunch of this done as I'm sure to be feeling under the weather tomorrow......
stay well!
JP
