Well i did it ...i finally did it!! i customized the bed of my 87 elky by taking off the chrome and cutting off the pinch welded metal. I made a HUGE mistake when i cut off all of the pinch weld! ( NEVER DO THAT!!!) I ended up having to weld the middle gap together hand filing that off only because the grinder started to melt the metal because it is so thin. i tried to weld on strips of metal on the bed to make it look like one piece. that didn't work because once again it was melting through the sides. and i was using a MIG welder too. so i had to do it the messy way. I had to MAR-Glass the bed. That wasn't fun but it worked extremely well!!! i was suprised then i used bond-o to seal it all off and it looks better than some of the welded beds i have seen so GO ME!! :D

or you coulda gone for a bed rug :P

nah i only did it because i took all the chrome trim off my elky plus the chrome was all banged up

im considering doing a mild custom on my chrome too.... when i go to repaint the truck black, im gonna have them sand down and primer up all the chrome trim, and paint it with the rest of the truck, so the only thing that wont be black is the lights. :cool:

Everything is in retrospect now! You could have just cut one side and folded it in then welded it on a inside corner. But that is academic.

You could have gotten new chrome and probably from GM still. Again that is academic now. So what are your plans?

POR-15 makes a body filler that can be used like Bondo. Also do you think that Bondo is the best thing to use on a seam or did you? I generally use the body seam sealer.

Just Curious, I figure you have a plan.

I've seen both the welded/molded (the guy even welded and fiberglassed the bed closed) and the painted moulding look. I gotta say the welded look was better for appearence but the painted moulding looked good also. And if you ever wanted to change it back Skull, you just gotta buy new mouldings.

Black is my thing... i dont think id be looking to change it back. :cool:

i know i found out all of these alternatives AFTER i did the work. The MAR- Glass is basically fiberglass which seals whatever u put it on to be water tight. so it will hold plus i welded the 2 pieces together underneath it then MAR-Glass then bond-o. so it is pretty damn sturdy!