Dent Question

[kopeck]

Afternoon,

I've been looking for a solid bed for a '79 C10 for years.  Usually, the ones that show up are far away or gone by the time I email/call.

Well, I picked up a very rust-free bed last week which has made me pretty happy.  The only issue and one I didn't see until after I had paid for it (it's was raining and not very light outside) was this dent you can see in the attached photo.

I would have bought it anyway, so it is what it is, I might have worked on the price a bit though but might not have gotten far.

How bad is it?  I'm good with the mechanical stuff but don't know jack about body work.  It's the only issue I can see.

K

[VileZambonie]

If you aren't inclined to invest into becoming your own body man, then just have a body shop do the work. Otherwise, grind to bare metal, stud gun or shark tool to pull the dents, glass over any welds, sand, fill, block, fill, block, guide coat, block, epoxy prime, filler primer, block again, base, clear. You up for it? 

[kopeck]

Hah...NO, I'm not! :-)

Honestly, I would love to learn but this isn't the project I want to learn on, that and time.  Right now I'm trying to figure who I want working on the truck.  Most of the local body shops prefer to work on newer stuff.  There's a guy the next time over that likes working on square bodies in his spare time, I need to go talk to him.

So it's nothing too tragic then?  I've got a friend that told me any dent that extended into a hard corner is the end of the world.  Then again I've never seen him do bodywork so there's that...

Question on doors.  I have an OE driver's door with some rust on the bottom lip but the rest of the door is OK.  The passenger door is a late 90s aftermarket that has zero rust but doesn't really follow any body lines.  Should I be looking for newer door shells, good used doors, or try making what I have work?  I've attached a picture of the driver's side (yes, the rockers need to be replaced too).

I know, lots of questions, just trying to gather what I need....

Thanks,

K

[VileZambonie]

GM doors are the best and original doors are even better. Paying someone to save them is the hard part, which is why we take on the bodywork ourselves. It takes hours and hours but the end result speaks for itself. There are some old aftermarket parts that were really good believe it or not ( I actually have some old stock I've hung onto ) but now most aftermarket stuff is hit or miss and mostly miss. There are differences in the doors, most notably 73-76 which you would not want for a 79. Any parts can be made to have perfect body lines, but you have to work and often modify them to get there.

[kopeck]

Yeah, I hear you.  I should say this isn't a buy a truck and fix it up on a whim type project.  This truck was purchased new by my grandfather and passed down to me.  I've owned it for 24 years and it was about 23 years ago that it got its current coat of paint and bodywork that was all done on a college kids' budget.  The original bed was replaced back then with one that had fewer dents and a floor so I considered it a major upgrade at the time!

After taking some time to really look at the passenger's side door, I think its faults are more installation than the door itself.

I might be willing to take a stab at fixing the doors, just small chunk-type projects but it needs rockers, inner rockers, and a cab mount on the driver's side.  The floor has a small hole too but it's way more solid than a lot of the cabs I see guys starting out with.  That seems like a project better left to someone who's been there before or I would need to find someone to at least help me through it.

My expectations for the truck are right in the middle on the restoration scale.  I still use the truck to do truck things, I'm not looking to make it show quality.  Really I just want to make the whole thing solid.  I don't need *perfect* door gap lines but I would like my doors to shut properly.  It doesn't see winter driving anymore so if I can take care of the rust that is there then it should be good for a very long time going forward.

I've been collecting parts for a while.  The bed was a big one as making my bed "OK" would have taken quite a lot of work.  There's a local guy with a couple of '83 doors for sale that are supposed to be in very nice shape.  They're priced that way though so I want to figure out if what I have is good before I go down that road.

It's a balancing act of money and time...

K

[DanMcG]

It's a balancing act of money and time...

I think we all walk that same road.
The dent in the front edge would be a relatively easy fix, you'd just need a hammer and dolly. you have access to the backside (albeit tight in the corner), it might be worth your time to try to fix it yourself.