anybody had any luck straightening bed sides? My truck had a sheet of 1/8" plate welded in for a floor and the welds stretched/shrunk bedsides. Would like to keep originals. Got one about halfway done with welds and a wet towel on appropriate sides of the metal. Is there an easier way?

 

Straightening a flat sheet is one of the hardest metal working jobs there is. I had the outer door skins warped from a sanblaster with too much pressure and I tried heating and shrinking with a wet towel, hammer and dolly shrinking-nothing worked. I called a body shop and they told me it's like "making love to a woman"!!! He didn't want to touch it. Feel sorry for his wife..... Anyway I got another couple of doors. Moral is it's probably cheaper to just buy the repo bed sides, save the "lovin" for your significant other.

 

I agree with Zoot. The problem with trying to straighten bed sides is that both sides have to look good, unlike a door skin where you could hide small flaws with filler, etc. Since you see both sides, there's no hiding anything. For the $300 or so they cost, you can't do much hammering and dollying and come out ahead.

 

I thought the punch line would be different!

 

There aren't any x-rated smilie faces