Motivated by estimate.

[Busboy]

Nothing like going to a body shop and getting a super high estimate to straighten out some minor dents in the bed of my 67 to motivate me into doing it myself. The solution they were talking about to level out a dent in the side bump area was crazy. They wanted to build up the 1/4 inch low spot with a welding bead!

No thanks, I did it myself the proper way.

[ThinLizzy13]

Build it up with weld and then sand it back down? That seems kinda off

[tsherry]

it takes all kind of stupid to make the human race complete.

[Ranchero50]

Building up a sheet metal dent with weld would create all sorts of new and interesting stresses. I have a couple hours with a hammer / dolly and it's not horribly difficult to work the major damage out of a panel but the detail stuff will drive a grown man crazy. Polish your hammer heads and dolly's before starting. It makes a huge difference in how long it take to do the work.

[Busboy]

I should probably explain further. The area directly under the bed side moulding was dented in approximately 1.5 inches and was about 3 inches long. I bought a stud welder and was able to pull this dent out almost all the way but still lacked about 3/8 inch. I just couldn't get the studs to withstand my slide hammering before the studs snapped off. This area is super high crown and the steel is all American, thick stuff. It was resisting mightily. After stewing on possible solutions for a month, I thought about cutting an access hole in the inside of the bed in order to get to the backside of the dented area. This enabled me to get a 4 inch wide bricklayers "chisle" right in the back of the apex of the "bump" in the bed. I had to use a small hand sledge but after several blows the dent was leveled almost back to perfection! Needless to say I'm proud of doing it myself as opposed to letting some drunk bodyman do a makeshift job. Welding the 3x5 access panel back into the inside of the bed will be easy as well. It's kind of weird how ideas will finally come to you after a while, but it pays to be patient.

[farmallmta]

Your masonry chisel technique is exactly the same that I used to straighten out the nose of my '69 F250's hood right at the "F" where my alcoholic sh!thead neighbor backed into it with his Dodge. After getting the whole area nearly back to where it should be, I used a wiping of Evercoat's Metal-2-Metal filler, smoothed by sanding, then a skiff of body glaze, then primer-filler, then primer sealer, then single stage urethane, Wimbledon White. The whole job turned out great.

Good idea on cutting an access hole in the bed inner layer! I'll remember that one for future bump-area problems!

[Busboy]

Thanks for the response.