I have a hole in the bed from a gooseneck the previous owner of my f350 had and half a dozen holes from an in-bed diesel tank I since sold.

I use the truck for moving dirt and mulch as well as plywood and drywall...so i'm looking for a way to plug the holes and not have anything protrude. Also, the bed has a spray-on liner.

Any ideas on a good way to do this?

 

Go to a wrecker and tell him what you want. Find a rolled truck, or one with a damaged box, and ask him to cut a section bigger than what you need. Find someone who can weld the patch in place, and also patch up the tank holes while he's at it with either plug welds, or small sections of the same chunk. Then have it re-line-x'd.

 

Tried this but cost is prohibitive...

I can do the welding myself, though I was hoping to find a solution which wouldn't require me getting under the truck with a welder this time of year...but I might just have to.

At this point i'm looking at just cutting plugs out of 1/4" steel and welding those into the holes...

 

I am not a body man, but have done a little welding on my truck bed and one I used to make a trailer. I would recommend finding some sheet metal closer to the same thickness as the truck bed metal. I won't say the 1/4" material won't work, but when trying to get enough heat to get penatration on the 1/4" thick material, it will blow through the bed material.

TC

 

I think I'd just drop carriage bolts into the holes, anti-seize the threads and be done. Usually a carriage bolt isn't in the way of shoveling out the bed.

 

i thought about that and even though it's not in the way of shoveling, it will scrape up sheets of plywood or drywall.

 

How about taping the holes from underneath the bed, then get enough of the bed liner to fill the holes from the top. Could also use liquid rubber or silicone.

I think trying to weld in plugs from the bottom is going to ruin the bed liner around every hole and make a big mess of your bed.