The bed of my truck on the outside is in excellent condition. The inside panels are beat up, particularly the front panel near the cab. It looks like the previous owner hauled motorcycles and it's fairly pushed out and dented badly. Besides replacing the whole bed, I'm looking for recommendations on what to do here. Has anyone put sheet metal over the bed and then repaint, carpet it? Spray the bed area with that bedliner stuff? Open to suggestions.

 

Ed -

I have a new album on "Bed Mods" and used "Herculiner" bed liner on the plywood floor and inside the side walls. It worked really well to cover many imperfections in the bed walls. I think it looks pretty good, too. But then I wanted a utility bed to haul stuff, not a show bed. I considered a carpet option over nice wood. The horror stories I heard about water entrapped between them (and the cost) put me off onto other options.

As to straightening the bed sides and/or front panel, AXracer had a suggestion on a recent thread that using a "shrinking wheel" (?) would take any bowing out. Hand working would reduce waviness. But, the front panel could be easily handled. You could either just add a new sheet right over the top of the old or cut out and replace the old front with a new panel by leaving part of the old as edge flanges to attach the new one to.

Now, for the sides, I think the options depend on how wrecked they are. My side walls looked OK from the outside. There isn't very much of the side that shows around the fender. But, on the inside, they had seen better days. Hardly pristine. The bed liner was the answer for me there.

Ahhh, the swellness of re-engineering a 50-year-old vehicle. Brings a tear to your eye, don't it?

 

The front bed panel can be had for about $125 shipped. The side panels get spendy if you have to pay truck shipping. I spent a ridiculous amount of time straightening mine. They came out pretty darn nice. So I sold them and bought some new ones. Don't ever try to understand me. Just love me the way I am.

 

Is the bed a one piece design? or can remove just the front panel only. The sides on mine aren't too bad and could pass with some flat paint. The front has to be replaced or something.
Randy- I was thinking about doing the bed liner with carpet and leaving the polished oak flooring since I already have oak wood and the SS strips, maybe using a tonneau cover to keep the water out. I have my other truck for haulin stuff, so that's not a concern.
Fatfenders - I stopped understanding you a while back LOL..... Somehow, I keep getting sound advice that makes sense from you? So where do I get the front bed panel and what do I need to replace it?
Ed.

 

Lower

I got mine from Tim McCarthy from the OKC area. At the time, $125 shipped was hard to beat. I don't know anymore. And I'm sure you're shipping will be a couple bucks more to CA.

Provided somebody didn't weld it on, your front bed panel will come off easy. It is probably riveted or bolted on. Look on the bedside right in front of the front stake pocket.

And email me if you need Tim's email address. I bought a bunch of stuff from him over the years.

 

Thanks Dewayne, I'll check it out and see what I got.
ed

 

The top part of the front bed panel was bent badly on mine. I got the measurements and had a metal shop bend a piece in a brake. The tricky part was trimming the ends to match the old one. Made the bottom edge just a tad longer in order to mig it without welds showing. Looks fine.
jt