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Bowed bed side panels


David A.

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I'm currently working the dents out of my 1950 B2B bed side panels. From all the years of the fenders pulling on the panels, it has caused the sides to bow out. Does anyone know how to go about shrinking the metal back down so the sides are straight?  If I try to push in on the sides to make them straight, it just pops in and bows toward the inside. 

Any help would be appreciated!

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Difficult to give an advice without seeing the bow outs. 

Might be that you will be able to straighten it by cold forming. If not, heating the bowed area with a torch will help to get the required result. As last option it sometimes is necessary to do one or more cuts into the sheet metal, aling it and close the cuts by welding.

If you had a picture,  it might be easier to estimate what could be the right way. 

 

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If you are not experienced in body and fender repair I would be very couscous with the shrinking disk. If you really want to have the perfect sides then I would take to a good body guy and have them work on them.  I know my talents and that is not one of them so I would farm it out, but maybe you have done prior body and dent work and feel comfortable doing this type of work.

If you do too much damage then it will cost you even more to fix what you have done, get an estimate from a professional to see what the cost would be. Someone might do it in their slow time on a straight hourly rate.

 

Rich Hartung  desoto1939@aol.com

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Here are a couple pictures of the sides. The bow doesn't show up very well in the pictures. I've done a fair amount of body work in the past, but never had to shrink any metal over this large of an area. As Rich said above, I don't want to make things any worse. 

IMG_1957.JPG

IMG_1959.JPG

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Shrinking has always been more difficult than stretching for me.  I never have been fond of a torch method as it is uneven and too hot in areas you don't want it.  It might be best to let a professional do it in the long run.  

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Thank you for the replies. I will probably follow the advice and seek someone who is experienced in this sort of thing. I'd sure hate to make things worse. 

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I've done three sets of them, the easiest was with an oxy-acetylene torch and all required lots of time and patience.  I currently use a stud gun. I've found propane bottle torches don't work well and suspect a shrinking disc would not work well on these bed sides as well.  I don't have a shrinking disc and have never used one so I could be all wrong on them.  I personally think they may have been bowed from the factory, especially if it's a high side box due to the stress and stretch from the pressing the embossed pattern.

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16 hours ago, Jerry Roberts said:

So if you decide to get a price quote for repair of the sides , you can compare that price to the cost of new replacement bed sides .  

I have looked for new bed sides, but haven't been able to find the high sides. Are the high side bed sides available? If so who do I need to contact?

thanks!

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14 hours ago, The Oil Soup said:

I would remove the osb, perhaps that is distorting the side panels. 

The osb is just part of a roll around table I made to support the bed while I'm working on it. 

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The pictures don't show the problem very well. The bottom is pretty straight. The bow is in the middle probably from where the fenders constantly pulled on them. The side that is bowed in is only in because I pushed it in. It normally is bowed out but since its stretched, it pops in when i try to push it straight. 

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getting it close......

 

Never tried to get it perfect, but it was much better for the effort.

Lowside beds are easier to replace the steel on, no embossment.

48D 

 

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My sides were bowed in 3/4 of an inch from the fenders being hit. I spent tons of time working on them to get them better. I even took them to a local shop to have them done, which didn't result good. They did get some of the work done, but I ended up finishing them. I had the best luck with using a torch to shrink the metal. I got to a point where no matter what I did, I couldn't get the metal to do much more, and I kept chasing "waves" or ripples on the sides trying to get it perfect. I even tried jumping on the sides while on saw horses to move it at one point. I finally took a hammer and dolly and worked the displaced areas to the center again, and hit them with light heat to relax the metal once I had it where I wanted it (you could pop it in and out). Once I was happy enough (or frustrated enough...depends on how you want to look at it!) I used duraglass and filled what I couldn't get out. I know it sounds bad, but I have probably in THE worst area 3/16" of filler. I was able to get the sides pretty straight considering where I started. I haven't had any issues with the bed since I finished it almost 1.5 years ago, and Its had pretty heavy loads in the bed, and even people sitting on the sides going in and out of rough fields. 

 

You can find pictures here on page 18: 

 

Edited by 52b3b Joe
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