Knocked off the rear skirt panels today
Next to the cab end panel, which really just needs paint, they were the best.




Damage
- pitted out seam lip
- rear valance seam lip - i had to cut most of it away to get the panels off
- lower edge - bent on one, wavey on both
- a couple of extra mudflap screw holes

Tackled the bottom edge and arch lips first with a hammer and dolly

I took a profile of the rear valance and made some patches up for the lip i cut out

The panels both didnt quite match. They did have some bog along the top seam and at the back there so i think they had been bent out a bit to fit the flares. Just had to bend the area below the swage line back into shape

Welded on and then cut down to size



Then onto the bed lip
One cleaned up pretty well so i think il leave it as is. The other was too pitted to go ahead with on a rebuild of this scale (might have left it if the panels just bolted on and i wasnt redoing the whole thing)
Im not sure if this is the best method of repairing this area, so im open to suggestions, I did consider bending a section up to spot weld to the face of the panel. But in this case i opted for just cutting the whole thing off at the bend.
It did banana on me, but not an issue as i clamped it flat before welding. and it didnt banana after welding so i call that a win.


all welded up

The profile of the bend is a slightly different radius from original, but the concourse judges wont notice it when theres some seam sealer over the top.

and the final step was to cut out the notches for the bed rails, and plug up the old mudflap holes


and these are done. Just need a final rubbing with wire wool to strip the last traces of primer off and then these are ready for some paint.

I foresee many hours of tack welds ahead