Rear Tail Light Bed Corner Damage

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:23 pm
I posted this in the welding & metal fab section and got zero responses so I deleted and now posting here, hopefully more luck. I'm scheduled to pick up this '81 f150 longbed on Friday morning and have a question for the more experienced body men out there. I'm doing a full restoration on my '81 F150 and after months of searching I found a rust free bed for my truck. Now that its getting closer to time to pick it up I'm thinking it over a bit more. I have nearly all the novice body man tools(hammer and dolly set, dent stud welder, mig welder) but I was hoping someone could shed some light on how to tackle this dent. I assume this is from some sort of rear impact and at first I didn't think too much of it. Notice how the tail light doesn't sit in the housing correctly as though there is not enough vertical room for it to fit? Now that makes sense since the dent in that area effectively scrunched the space for the opening of the tail light. I guess my question is: Can it be achieved with my tools and where do i start in tackling the dent? Some ideas that flew in my head were to get a jack tool inside the housing push up and then work the rest of the dent straight. I also noticed that the tailgate has more of a dip in alignment on the damaged side. Aside from another dent and plug welds, this bed seems like a winner, but I would like some advice from you guys as this is my first rodeo and don't want to end up with a bed that's beyond my capabilities and shopping the work out.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:56 pm
it looks like the alinement issue with the tailgate is just the tailgate cap. note the body line just above the tail light lens, it looks ok to me. from what I can see, looks like the dents should beat out fairly easy. with the tailgate you'll want to back it up with something heavy that's some fairly heavy metal. the dent along side of the lens should be easy take your time and study what your doing before you do it.
Jay D.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 8:34 am
Yes, that is more in the body work classification than the Welding and Metal Fabrication.

If you can't get the tailgate straight enough then a replacement would work.
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