After cutting out the large patch of metal from the S10 bed and analyzing everything about it I had to come to a realization about the whole thing. One, there is no real way to fix this bed where its going to come out clean, there is too much crushed metal on the inside and outside of the bed. Second, it doesn't make any sense to destroy a perfectly good short bed cutting patches out of it to try and fix the crushed long bed on this truck as the repair will still be shitty. I decided to not touch the short bed but to try and trade it for a long bed, or worse case, sell it and use the money to buy a replacement long bed if I find one. In the meantime I figured I'll just try to straighten out the metal that I cut from the bed and weld it back in to try and somewhat restore the bed to a "normal" state instead of the crushed state that we started with.
This started out by taking the section of metal I cut out and cutting it at what was the top of the side of the bed where the top and the side meet. Separating the inside wall of the patch from the outside allowed me to first straighten the inside portion so I can weld it back in. I had to straighten out the areas around the hole as well so as I kept test fitting the inside portion I made adjustments to the rest of the bed around the hole until I got things to a straight enough place where I could go ahead and weld the inside piece of the patch in place. I also had to beat the fender well straight as it was bent down some and wouldn't line up the rest of the bed as well as allow the top to be somewhat straightened out. Of course I had to grind the paint off the edges in order to prep the metal for welding. With things all set I went ahead and welded in the inside patch. With the inside half of the patch welded in I moved on to the outer half, the one that really matters. Since there were a couple of other cuts made in the skin I had to weld all of this back after straightening out the sheet metal. Of course there was a lot of hammer play involved where straightening things out is concerned. I had to test fit the metal several times as I hammered the piece to make sure that I get the metal to fit as closely as possible. I had to trim some of the edges as well to get the piece to fit without overlapping. Even when I got to the point where I started welding one side, I had to stop to make adjustments before continuing to weld the rest of the sides. After finally finishing the welding I had to stand back and take a long look and laugh. This whole repair looks like pure dee shit! But again, the thing is, if I can find a replacement bed, this shit really won't matter as this bed will come off anyway. At first I thought about using bondo to try and patch the shitty surface to try and level everything out smooth but even if I do that there's still a matter of the top that's not level. Even the two halves of the bed show the downward angle indicative of a tree falling across the middle of the bed. There is no way to fix this short of replacing the damn thing. Because of this, it makes no real sense to expend too much energy trying to make this fuckery look pretty. Worst case all I'll do is clean the surface up some by grinding the welds down and maybe spray some cheapo white paint over the shit. Maybe by covering it up with white paint it'll sorta be like camouflage and not put the focus directly on the welds and the uneven crinkly nature of the sheet metal. It would've been possible to just drive the truck with the crushed bed but that would be even more unsightly than the shitty weld up patch job. At least the bed is somewhat straight so it can be able to hold things without it spilling out over the crushed sides. Again, if I can find a camper shell to replace the crushed one it can further take the focus off the shitty patch. I just have the other side to do, which unfortunately will be harder since the fuel filler door is right in that area. It's not going to be a straightforward "cut the metal out and beat it straight then re-weld it". That side will take a bit more time. I'll get it though, might be shittier but I'll get it.
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