Bed Floor Repair (Part 1)

Posted: May 8, 2022 in Groanin' Gladiator, Tombstone

Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor — Mississippi John Hurt

The floor of the J200 truck bed is a mess.

Here is where it started:

After media blasting and primer it was apparent it needed to be replaced.

There is no “direct fit” available. So, I will make due with some patch panels. They came on a pallet and were oversized.

So, I cut them down to size:

Here they are close. I did need to make a few little clearance cuts.

Now that they are fit it’s time to get most of that old rusty crap out. An important thing to do is to avoid warping things. Keeping it structurally sound is a key. It’s time to start cutting out the rot!

I cut sections out between support cross-members. Then I used hammer/cold-chisel along with a die grinder with a sphere carbide bur to grind/break spot welds.

So much rusty grinding dust… oof

Almost done with removal.

Driver side still has the most rust/cancer. The rear behind the tire hump is going to have to be 100% replaced.

Here are the pieces I cut out (note it’s in 2 pieces, the rust was all the way through) and the replacement patch piece I’ll need to bend/craft.

After weldingup the holes and giving it a spot of primer, here is the hump support parts.

In the picture above you can see there is still some runs holes to deal with.

After a bunch of grinding/cleaning/”negotiating” here is where I got the outer panel and am still reacting to bad rust where the tailgate is near the bed. I’m welding up holes and grinding smooth.

Here is the inside view of the same (after filling/grinding/paint)

Here is a weld-in patch for this area.

After some quality time with a hammer and dolly, welder, grinder and giving it a small cut to relieve the warp in the panel the driver rear behind the hump looks better. I still need to build up the inside structure to keep it stable. So much rust.

Don’t look at the next photo if you have a sensitive stomach. I think this is the moral equivalent of feeding liquor to someone with a stomach virus. As bad as the “rusty” bits look, it’s actually solid… it is just jagged where the sand blaster got the rust away. It is true that I didn’t grind it down to shiny steel before welding. I was just adding a strip under it to add strength as while I was hammering it was basically just bouncing. It needed some rigidity.

As bad as that looked, it was so much better once welded. You might also notice the relief cut that I put in the fender. With all that hammering the metal is expanding. It has to go somewhere or it will bow out.

So after I welded that strip in, I welded one to the top half of the bed body as well. That also made a huge difference in strength. Here it is after a coat of pain to hide all evils…