So I had my trucked parked for a few days in a public parking lot... Left it away from where the other cars normally hang out. Lo and behold, when I returned to my truck, Some a-wipehad hit it! It's a stepside, so fiberglass bed... about a 1 sq ft section on the drivers side rear/ bottom of the bed, just in front of the bumper, was crushed in! I spent the next half hour walking around, trying to see if I could find the car that hit it... no luck.

So Ive done some repairs, and I thought I would post up here just to give some ideas to anyone who might have a similar dilema... and of course because i'm proud of my work.

I broke out ye ol' dremel (second best tool in the world, vice grips being first) and ground down all the cracked and crushed area. Then i got some fiberglass cloth and epoxy and put a good layer of that stuff on the backside of the area,for re-enforcement. next i aplied the dreaded bondo (i hate bondo-ed vehicles) and sanded it all down nice and pretty. almost. for some reason i can never get it perfect... So i decided "hell, paint would look like crap since its not perfect, and it gets chiped during offroad adventures. I think i'll use some Herculiner!"

So thats what I did! I just wanted to go from the top edge of the steps to the bottom of the bed, so I took the plastic moldings off the bed. I tell you what, the adhesive they use to put those things on is a b!tch! First off, it's a pain in the @$$ to yank those moldings off, then i had to sloooowly shave off (most of) the sticky with a rasor blade, then some carb cleaner to make the remainder gooey, and even then i still couldnt just wipe it off. the carb cleaner helps a lot tho.again with the razor blade. Anyway, sanded her down real good, took off the rear bumper,and prepared to make a huge mess.

Now, I had never used the stuff (herculiner, rhinoliner, whatever)before, so I had no idea if it would turn out how I wanted it to, especialy with rolling it instead of spraying it. But it ended up turning out realy well! I just got done puting on the second coat, and it looks glorious! thats just the bed, i'm in the process of shaving the moldings off the cab... yay.

I wanted to put some pictures on here, but my computer is being retarded, so it'll have to wait till tommorrow.

 

dam that sounds like alot of work!!! that sucks i had someone do that to my chevy.. really pi$$ed me off because i just bought the steel roll pan and actually had the sides where it has the gaps welded in and went as far as respaying the whole bed and tailgate, 4 days later some one ran into the back of me with a shopping cart and put a crease in the tailgate. still never found out who did it so i just left it for now... so i fell your pain lol... glad yours turned out better then mine... cant wait to see pics..

john

 

ok so here's the pictures

 

looks pretty good!!

john