FrankenSide 2 required more metal replacement and was the recipient of 3 new patch panels as well as a new tail light panel. I got the panels from Top Banana and they seemed to fit fine. | Wow. Last post was back in February? And now it's nearly June? Time flies by way too fast! I have made much progress on the restoration of my shortbed bedsides. Because they both have required a ton of patching and repairing I have named them FrankenSide 1 and FrankenSide 2. The stitched-together look of each made it an obvious name choice. Looking back at how they started out I'm amazed I even attempted it... but then again, one of my main objectives with their repair was that I would learn how to mig-weld sheet metal and I think I have learned a lot. FrankenSide 1 was on the drivers side and needed the large patch panel in front of the wheel opening. It also needed the rear corner structure from another truck grafted in as well as a new taillight panel attached at the rear. In the factory it appears the rear panel was spot-welded to the side panel before the corner structure was added. In order to attach the taillight panel to the bedside I cut a narrow strip of steel and bent it into a long angle piece. On one side of the angle I used my air-punch tool and popped holes into it that I could use to plug weld the angle to the inside of the bedside. On the other side of the angle I cut slices. The slices allowed me to easily bend the angle to conform to the curve of the bedside. Once I had the angle welded to the bedside I could plug weld through the slices onto the flange on the inside of the taillight panel. Then, when I had the taillight panel welded on correctly I was able to graft in the rear corner structure. In order to get the corner structure to fit in the correct position I first needed to cut out some of the bedside interior panel and some of the rolled top edge of the bedside in order to angle the corner structure into position. Then I just welded the removed sections back in place. Once the welding was completed on FrankenSide 1, I ground down my welds and applied some "hair-bondo" to the seams. I've read that the hair bondo adds strength to the repairs and it will be topped with regular bondo next. |
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ChevyEddieA guy just having fun fiddlin' in his garage Archives
May 2016
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