Anyway, you should have good luck on that panel. I replaced/MIG'ed all four lower bed panels on the 98 12 years ago and they're still solid. Weld across the body top transition....right above the bend. It'll be easy to re-shape that way. I began with thru- hole clamps, clamping copper to the back side. I quit using the copper backers by the third panel, but still used the clamps to set gap. You have to skip around a lot more in order for the metal to cool, but that's about it. The new panels came from Raybucks.

 

Thanks Brew! I'm going to try and get to this panel this week. I'll refer to your tips! I decided I wasn't happy with the hatch, so I got back in and tried to do better. Still needs work. I need to take some measurements off the other side, I suppose.

 

Good morning thinkers!- hope you fellers week is going well- we are busy little beavers right now- no big jobs ( we dont have enough mechanics for big jobs) but lots of little pm’s-
Stay safe at your salt mine- ill catch up later-

 

So, Matt did a recovery very close to me. Wish I would have known, LOL.

 

The hatch looks good. The panel clamps can be modified to hold a copper backer in place and set gap at the same time.. I got mine from Eastwood, but Harbor Freight has them as well I think, yea, -

https://www.harborfreight.com/butt-w...-pc-60545.html

But you may not need them for that panel, it's fairly small. The panels on the 150 were fairly large, they helped me a lot.

 

That thing was right there, ready to go over.

 

Happy Birthday, Whitey. I hope your projects all come together as planned this year.

 

I was watching a video yesterday.... found a really good channel in YT for fabbing your own body panels. He had some pretty cool tricks that I hadn't thought of (multiple vids). I'll try and find the one I meant to show you.

I know! Made me nervous when Rudy was rocking it. At the end, he's standing in Erda in that driveway. I can see the GSL and Stansbury Island in the background. He talks about going to Grantsville to see a horse with Lizzy. Technically, UMC is in Grantsville. I have three cousins that live there... nice little horse community, and lots of riding (ATV, UTV, etc.) to do over there. LOL... as I am typing, I just got this message.




Thank you.... I wish that that could happen, LOL. Dude... I am STILL waiting on the T5. My Buddy called me last night and told me that he thought the kit came with synchro keys, but it didn't. So he ordered them last night. HOPEFULLY the old pig will have a new trans soon. Then I need to wrassle him over to put in my 3.31's.

 

Well.... I've been thinking about getting a new GoPro 9, and I just got the announcement that the 10's are getting released. Guess I'll wait.

https://gopro.com/en/us/info/hero10-black-teaser

 

I bought the Mevotech full front end kit from Rock Auto. I have always been partial to Moog previously but these parts are beefier than stock and at least seem to be of good quality out of the box. I saw some other people on here using them so I figured what the hell. The truck already has 206k on it. I probably won't wear these out before it dies of some other cause.