So.. HGS and Kees, I know what you told me and I’m normally not going against good advice.
Friday night when I arrived in the garage I saw my mate Ferry had brought the metal strips which I had already ordered. Don’t be haters guys, but I just had to see what it would look like with the strips next to the cross sill.
Then I thought, well I can just tack it in a couple of spots to see what it looks like, and against better judgement I proceeded. I did treat the metal underneath and I’m going to put some kit on the seams, but this should be adding some structural integrity, or are you again slapping your foreheads and mumbling profanities towards me?
We then turned it over and put on the back of the truck, because we needed to space on the lift, but this gave me a good opportunity to see if my tank frame caused any trouble.. and it doesn’t!
As you can see by the shiny square, it sits perfectly.
With the bed sitting right way up, I turned my attention to the rough corner patches , which have already been repaired once, probable a couple of owners ago..
This is the left side, but the one on the right is just as bad
When I starter cleaning it up, I could see the material underneath from the tail pan was gone as well.
So now I have to figure out how fix that.
If I lived in the States I’d just order it all new, but the shipping cost and then the tax authorities triple the price, which in my opinion is not worth it.
What I did do, is buy a complete bed floor of an 74 model, for less than buying 2 repair panels from LMC. It’s very rough, but it has enough good material to cut out repair panels. Whatever stays leftm will get scrapped.
the bed will have to come off, because I still want to treat the underside fully and the loose wiring and exhaust bracket are easier to fix when removed.