This truck I have has the standard fleet side truck bed. The bed has had some work done to it which involved removing the tail lights and installing a roll pan which has the tail lights in it now. I'm having a lot of issues with the lights because undoubtedly the electrical work was not done correctly. I want to re-install the stock tail lights back in their original location. The old tail light holes have been covered up, naturally. I sanded off the paint and primer last night and can almost see the whole outline weld where the new metal was added in to cover those holes. I am just not very positive where the top and bottom lines would need to be cut in. Does anyone have the dimensions the holes need to be, or maybe even a template drawing that can be printed and traced on? Even a link to a website that shows how to cut them in would be very helpful. I've tried searching but I am not coming up with anything useful and I'm not looking to do this half@ssed. I would like for the holes to be correct and the seals line up correctly as well. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. Take care.

 

Help ---- Anyone out there today? Any ideas on where to get the dimensions or a template? I can draw the template myself if I had the measurements.


I really don't want to wing it and risk cutting the holes to large. I am planning on cutting out just a peak hole to see inside there. Maybe they just went completely over the holes and the insides are still in there. Then I could just get close and grind the rest to the appropriate size. I'm just not very familiar with body work to go freely poking around. Is it normal to leave the insides in tact and just from new metal over the holes or does the process require more detail which would require the insides to have been removed? I'm really at a loss with this one right now due to the unfamiliar territory.

 

This is probably not what you wanted, but without pics I don't understand what's going on. Have you considered just getting a used bed off another truck?

 

-Pooterosa

It is tough for me to give you any advice without some images to look at. However, a sheet metal rule of thumb that I stick to has always been when in doubt make a cardboard/paper template before cutting any metal.

I would try to cut the perfect hole in some type of paper material until you get it perfect. Once its perfect just transfer onto metal and cut on the line.

It is always easier to make extra templates than fixed a botched panel.

Just my .02 and I am by no means a seasoned sheet metal artist.

-cerobbins

 

Sorry for not having photos uploaded. I was having problem uploading them. What I was looking for were the measurements of a stock tail light assembly and the vertical measurements for the original placement.

I bypassed the idea of reinstalling stock tail lights and decided to just rework the existing wiring and I was able to get the existing tail lights working (the ones in the roll pan) and I added 2 new reverse/back up lights as well.

All working just fine now.