I have been slowly working on a few dents i have on my truck bed and i am stuck on this one. It's in a rough spot and im not sure what to use to help push it out. I have a couple pictures including the dent itself and then the back side of it.






Now the back side of it. I can't get a hammer in there to bang it out. I tried a pry bar but it just bends the bed rail. I would really prefer the dent to be out a bit more before i resort to filler and smoothing it out.










My last question is what is the best option to "patch" this tiny hole so water doesn't get into the filler. I was thinking i can use fiberglass resin and spread it over and let it harden. I would do this on the front and back. Sand it and then ut my filler and proceed from there.

Dent should really be pulled out with a stud gun / slide hammer. Hole should really be welded shut and ground down flat.

If you don't have those tools it would be worth bringing the truck to a small shop just to see if they would do those two reasonably quick jobs for you, for a fair price. Attempting with hand tools and fillers is not going to be too good on those areas.

That last picture you have a couple of high spots from pounding on it...needs to be dealt with before filler...

Yea i know about the high spots. The last picture was crunched out because i slid into a guard rail during the winter. I still need to finish working it.

I am really thinking about getting a welder shortly so i would be able to fill it like you recommended.

I don't have a stud welder but would it work if i tack welded studs on to pull the dent out?

sure, if you tack on a couple of tabs (bent washers work well), that would work to allow you to pull the dent.

Okay thats good news. I have a bunch of washers laying around. What do you mean by bent washers though?

I am currently working on the creased part in the last picture. I think the hardest part is going to be trying to get the body line back. Theres not many objects that have that tight of a bend that i can use to shape it again.

Sometimes i just wanna go get an estimate to have this stuff done by a shop but im guessing the bill will easily be $500+. I would rather take the couple of days to do it myself. I know the body line will not be 100% perfect but if it is close enough to where it wont bother me then im fine with it.

Lightweight washers you can bend to put a flat spot on, to weld. Or grind a flat spot on the edge. Or just weld to the edge...whatever works for you, we are flexible here

Okay i guess whatever works the best. Ill have to find something to use to then hook on the washers and pull it out. I should have something laying around

You can make a cheap slide hammer with a short length of black pipe, a pipe cap and some threaded rod and nuts from Home Depot. I made one once to pull egr caps out of a vtec motor, and it worked great.

Well ive been working at it all weekend and i gotta say im very proud and happy with how much i was able to pull out. Without this welder i would still have a dent. It is so useful. I really appreciate the ideas you gave me. I did rig up slide hammer that worked really well but looks like it wouldnt pull out plastic.

I took a length of rebar and metal tubing i had laying around. Slid the tube over it. Found a ratchet strap i wasnt using and cut the hook off of it. Welded the hook to the end of the bar. Then took a washer and welded it onto the other side of the bar for a stop. Worked wonders. I was able to hook it on the washers i welded to the dent and pull them out. Also filled that small hole.

I do need a little advice on the welder though. It seems to pop a lot and its pretty hard to make a nice spot weld. I can do alright lines with it but still not anything great. I have the wire speed pretty low. Would speeding that up help? I have it on around 2 1/2.

Good going, sounds like great progress. Hard to answer the welding questions. I will tell you that if I am welding with my dad's cheap flux core mig welder, I look like an idiot. Arc welder, forget it, I'm useless. If I use my Hobart mig with envelope gas and solid wire, I look like I really know what I'm doing. So the equipment makes a huge difference when welding, based on my experience.

Best I can tell you is practice on scraps, see if you can get it dialed in.