There is nothing wrong with bondo when used by a professional who knows what they are doing. Just because its readily available and used improperly by some its apparently given a bad name. The steel of the bed is very malleable its not very hard to straighten it out to 99% straight, the bondo like I said is just to smooth the surface. Obviously if you use bondo to fill 4" deflections it will never last.

And remember depending on location this stx is worth 10k-14k, you are advising the OP to spend a quarter of the trucks value on repair.

 

Yeah I can get 14 for it any day at a local used car lot that specializes in 4wd's and diesels, as long as that's fixed lol

 

Please re read my statement...i said for it to be RIGHT, it needs a new bedside. But i bet his budget will lead to a mud fix. Which is more likely...which i have agreed with!

Bedside is creased. To get that 99% flat, which you think is so easy, is actually not that easy. Creased metal is stretched metal. Why do you think pdr guys won't touch a dent that is creased? Those guys are amazing, but they won't touch that.

Sure whoever fixes this can hammer it pretty flat...but 99%? Sorry, reality is a little different. Creased metal will lead to oil canned metal, to stop that you need to metal shrink. The time, labor, and money involved with that, to get it all worked out, you could've had the new bedside on and painted, with the customer back in the truck.


Remember, you are asking the OP to gamble with his "baby". Believe me I'll be the first person to defend body shops. Its been my life since i was 15. So i KNOW not all shops are created equal. Not all body men are created equal. A shop can have a mediocre body tech, and a great painter. The painter can cover allot of sin. It works vice versa as well. You keep talking like no matter where he brings it it will be mint. That is not guaranteed. I agree that done by a pro, it will look nice...however if he brings it in, and the "pro" in the shop is loaded with other work, they'll give it to someone else, less than impressive.


Those pics of that tundra i posted earlier, are from a fix that was all body filler, done incorrectly. At what was supposedly a quality Mom and pop shop. Customer was so pissed. Bedside was wavy as hell, so now that other shop is paying us to replace it.


But whatever, what do i know?


Btw, a $12-1600 bedside replacement repair is not 1/4 the value of a $14k truck...more like 10-12%.

 

I know the feeling, happened to my papaws old 87 k10. That truck was perfect before that. Now it's sitting in the backyard waiting to out a new motor and tranny along with the bed.