Dent Removal

[Joshpow]

I have a 71 f100 SWB. It has a dent in the V in the side of the bed. I was wondeing if anyone has ever removed dents from that area, and if so, how is the best way to get the dents out. It is so close between the inside bed wall and the outside, that I cant get a body hammer in to work the dent out. Any info will be appreciated.

[DuckRyder]

It sounds like a job for a stud gun or perhaps even welding on a plate to pull it with a frame racks pulling post.

A picture would help alot...

[Joshpow]

Here is a decent pic. It is from being sideswiped apparently. Someone tried to fix it before i got the truck, but did a halfway job. The rest was filled with bondo.

[DuckRyder]

Oh man.

They made that a lot harder to fix when they fixed at it.

Personal opinion is you are going to need professional help, as the holes they drilled for the slide hammer need to be welded up, and the screw in slide hammers really distort the metal around the holes. Since the holes are already there, they might be able to use some of them with an "L" end on the slide hammer to work on it a bit. A stud gun would weld what looks like a nail to the panel and then you attach a slide hammer, it works much better than the screw in type, but it is not even close to cost effective to buy unless you are "in the business".

Personally, if it were mine, I think I would be looking for a patch panel.

(edit: or you could put some ranger trim on it...)

[Joshpow]

Well guys here is another question for you. I have 2 options for repairing the dent and I cant decide which is best, so lend me your advice.

1. I got a set of doors from one of these trucks with good metal in the V. I figure I could cut a replacement panel out of them. This would still leave a small crease under the V, which would have to be worked out as well as a small dent at the rear bottom corner.

2. I got a friend who has a short bed with both sides in good shape, but a bad floor. He has offered it to me to take a bedside panel off of to have welded on my bed.

I don't know which would be easier. If anyone has had any experience with this kind of stuff, give me your opinion.

Thanks
Josh

[FORDification]

(Josh...I deleted the other thread you started on this subject, so we wouldn't have two threads discussing the same thing....it'll make keeping the info more organized by keeping it in one spot.)

I don't think unless you take this to a REALLY good body man that you'd be able to make this repair without using at least a little filler. Even the pro's use filler these days....ever watched 'American Hot Rod'? The good news is the body filler has made huge advances from the early days of the Bondo-in-a-can. With proper surface prep, there is no reason that it would give you any future problems.

I think you'd be looking at a lot more work trying to straighten that out that you'd have into just welding in a patch panel from your friend's donor bed. You might consider removing the entire lower 1/4 of that bed side, everything from the middle of the wheelwell forward and everything from the body seam down. Then you'd only have a couple visible seams to have to contend with. Of course, I should probably add the disclaimer than I'm no bodyman by any means.

And of course, since you have the welder out, you should also just run a bead all the way down that body seam and smooth it out. It'll really clean up the side, making it look much cleaner. I'm definitely going to be doing that with my truck when I get to that point.