Bedside Panel Dent Fix

Yep. I'm pretty OCD when I do this kind of stuff and I suggest others be as well. Epoxy primer will seal it up just fine from the back with a coating of paint.

 

Well, he could always buy one of those gizmos (I forget what they are called) and just "weld" on studs to the panel and then use the special pull hammer they make for them to pull it out. Then the studs just buzz right off with a grinder. I forget what they call those things but they make no holes in the metal. They had just come out when I was getting out of the biz.

The fact of the matter is that he doesn't, I assume, have any body/paint experience and all I can say is that by the time he buys all the tools and materials necessary to do it he'll drop quite a bit right there. Then there is the fact that it will not come out well for a beginner. It would be easier for him to buy the side panel, rent a tig welder and go that route than messing with bodywork. Then there are still things he'd have to buy and learn how to do it all.

If he really cherishes that Taco I don't recommend him doing it himself. He'll regret it. If he wants to start learning to do bodywork and has the time and money and a second car to drive around then he could go that route.

 

That's true. The holes need to be welded up and using a catalyzed epoxy primer over the bare metal to apply the bondo to also does wonders. For example, you can Bondo over PPG's DP-40 and it will never rust underneath the dough and that stuff will stick forever as long as the metal was prepped for the DP properly. There are other catalyzed primers/sealer you can bondo over as well but DP-40 was the cream of the crop 30 years ago and I'd bet it still is now. Someone may have come up with something as good but nothing could ever be better. Now, if the eco-wacko's forced PPG to take certain ingredients out of it to "save the planet" then, and only then might it be an inferior product but I doubt it since I bought some about 5 years ago and it was the same damn thing I used 25 years before that.

 

If you pull that dent with either pull hooks that you can buy or a body hammer or a stud gun the metal, as wimpy as it is, will stretch and you'll have high spots that need to be shrunk with heat and ice. Don't send him down that road. The metal on these new cars is just too thin and wimpy for anyone, even a pro to waste their time with doing that. If he tries to pull it and doesn't pull it too far then the metal may not stretch but he'll have a half a gallon of dough in it and then he needs to get that smoothed out for a nice repair. Another nightmare for a novice.

Some things you should just pay someone else to do.

 

Aren't these panels just bolted on?

 

No - 2nd gens are.

 

Alright here's my point - if you spend some time you'll get it good from afar with little investment money wise. You said, and I agree that the right way to fix it is slap on another fender and paint it, boom done - easy fix. So what's to lose besides time and a small amount of money compared to the total cost of the repair done by someone else? The worst thing is he'll learn something and end up paying a little more if it doesn't work out as well as he might hope it would. For me spending money on a body guy wasn't an option so I asked around about low cost methods and studied the hell out of body work online and did this for around $100 including 2k primer and clear and color matched base coat rattle bombs. First time doing bodywork ever. Painted houses before that, so that wasn't an issue. I know his dent is way huger than this. But that's not the point.










If you're going to replace the panel anyway to fix it right why not give it a shot - that's my point.

 

Bummer then. If money were no object then replace the bed and repaint but if money were no object it probably would have been fixed before now. DIY is a mentality I can understand and have no qualms with promoting it as long as reasonable expectations are understood. This truck is far from new and many seem to rust out so what's the life expectancy vs repair cost(which does seem quite fair). You have to ask yourself how much you want this done? Do you want to pay, or play?

 

Anyone can do body/fender work if they have the time and another vehicle as well as the money to do it. My only thought, since I have no idea the situation of the OP, was that getting mired in learning how to do Body/Fender work with your daily driver is just about impossible.

If someone makes $100,000 a year but only has one vehicle and their job eats up 60+ hours a week it's cheaper to pay someone to do it rather than take time off of work and spend money on tools and supplies to do it yourself. It all depends on the individual's situation.

 

True - I'm single, no kids, so time is available if I choose to make it so. Bodywork doesn't make a vehicle undriveable otherwise most young guys fixing up rides would be walking lol. Other than that it's a matter of time and interest like you said. I like learning new things and I have the time to do it if I want to, but if I had a family or even a gf I might not want to take the time to assuming I could afford it.

 

That bed only has a small rust spot that needs to e sanded and primer. Pulling out that dent is cheaper than replacing the bed. If the entire bed has dents and dings yeah replace the bed but if its that ding on the passenger side that bothers you pull it, sand it, and primer it. Infact PDR can probably pull all those other small dents as well.

 

Bondo is a brand name of body filler. It's the cheapest on the market and has a poor reputation but you can buy it at wallmart and does work.

All body filler will crack if not done correctly. You can go pretty thick with it but only in multiple thin coats if you just put a 1 inch thick layer on, it's going to crack.

The tools you're needing for the pull are called , grinder, stud gun and slide hammer. You'll also want some pick style body hammers as you will end up with some high spots when you pull. After that you need a straight sander and a da. And then some primer and paint. Pretty much any paint shop can factory match and put it in a rattle can. An etching primer surfacer will do the job, no reason to go nuts. Then you'll want some high build primer filler to actually smooth the repair. Primer filler in a rattle can is a joke, and fills no better than grey spray paint. it's best applied through a gun.

Ops biggest issue pulling the damage is its not a dent on a flat panel. It's multiple dents on multop3e curved sections. Its not a super complex panel but to do it right t's not going to be a 10 minute job to pull and then match the contours.

From what I can see in ops pic, once the dent is fixed you'll be doing paint work from tailgate to at least 1/2 way to the cab.

$1500 sounds reasonable.

Or see if any local college or high school has an auto body program. The right tools and skill will be there and the cost will be a lot less. I picked up several small projects back in the day fixing weekend screw ups before parents saw the damage.

 

I have exactly the same situation as you. Yep, it's lonely but we have far more freedom. Not knocking you guys with a wife and kids. If you married the right wife you have it made with happiness us single guys can only dream of. I just had to say that because the right wife, while a HUGE pain in the ass, at times, makes up for it in spades in MANY other areas of life.

In any case, if you have the time, a garage to do it in, the extra cash for "very expensive tools and supplies" and a second car then go for it but my advice in that case is go the welding route. By the new bed side, the heat sinks, the welder etc., etc. and get 'er done. The paint? Forget it without a spray booth. Get it prepped the way you want it and either hire a painter to squirt it for you or rent a booth and buy all the equipment yourself to spray it. Yeah, you can buy a cheap HVLP for $99 bucks but a good one was $500 the last time I checked and you can't use a "paint gun" as a primer gun so there's more money.

I think you can see what I'm getting at. Unless you REALLY want to start learning how to do body and paint and are willing to spend considerable amounts of money for the proper tools just pay the $1500 or even more for a better shop and be done with it. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. Paint and body isn't something you just decide some day you'll learn in a week or two. It actually takes at least 5 years before you even start to get "good" at it (for true quality show type stuff) and that depends on you. 10 years is more realistic.

The post above where the poster says he fixed his dents for $100? Yep, maybe he did but his dents are far different from your dent. There's a huge difference in where the dents are. He could have just ground and bondo'd those without ever wasting the time to drill holes and pull them out. Because of where those dents were. There's no body flex there and a very small area. 2 inches of dough in an area like that with well prepped steel and you would never have a problem with it.
20 years from now when that thing was finally crushed would be when anyone even knew there was dough there.

That dent you have will be a nightmare to get smoothed out enough to get even a "reasonable" paint finish as a beginner without replacing the entire panel. Pay someone else to do it unless you have a real hard-on to start self-teaching yourself body and paint. You'll be WAY ahead cash wise. It all depends on how much you love your Taco.

 

"I picked up several small projects back in the day fixing weekend screw ups before parents saw the damage."



You forgot to mention that when you pull the metal on this "new-age" wimpy metal there isn't enough thickness there to work with and filing like we could on the older relics from even the 80's is going to result in very thin metal or a hole. A pick hammer would be almost a joke in this day and age. Yep, it might work in "some" circumstances but most of the time you'd end up with just a hole. Other than that, you're right on the money. You nailed it.

Geez, even back in the 90's a DA would warp a hood on an 80's Honda from the heat generated due to the extremely thin metal panels. These days? I'd bet they just automatically replace panels and then paint them. I was shocked that back in the 90's a Honda could bend the rims if skidded sideways in a wreck but it's true.

These new cars simply don't have enough metal in them if anyone buys an "economy" car. I shudder at the thought of getting in a bad wreck in one of these "go-karts" they are selling these days.

 

P.S. I just took a really good look at your dent. Just pay a pro to fix it. Unless you replace the entire bedside you will be disappointed whether you do it yourself or have a "hack shop" do it for cheap. With the thin, cheap-assed "metal" they build cars and trucks out of these days the cost of getting all those contours/lines right is not going to happen without a serious "artist" who can work some dough. Then, you'll have dough and probably more than you want. Probably applied the wrong way as well. Yeah, it's going to cost you. It all depends on how much you love your Taco. Just make the decision, do it yourself, pay a pro to fix it and paint it properly with a new bedside or take it to a hack shop and get the deal then smile when you saved $1000 and the paint doesn't match and the repair looks like shit compared to the rest of the truck.

Decisions, Decisions.

 

I disagree on a few points. I'm assuming the OP has moved on by now so it's not worth arguing. Bottom line: you'll never know how easy or hard something is to do until you do it yourself and assess at the end of the project. Bodywork ain't rocket surgery and a hack job can be done with $1000 worth of tools and materials just as it can be done with $100 worth of tools and materials depending on the size of the project. Likewise, a thorough, long lasting job can be done with $100 just as it can be done with $1000.

 

Most skilled labor isn't rocket science but it is skilled, which means it takes time to acquire that and the knowledge that makes the difference between between apprentice/journeyman/master. While it's certainly possible to do a decent job on a first effort it's not very likely to do something anyone would pay for.

 

And the beauty of it is that you wouldn't be paying for it.

 

There is no way on earth anyone is going to fix that dent and repaint it for $100. You can only buy materials in certain quantities. I do understand what you are saying though. There is nothing wrong with doing it yourself.

 

You're right. Many don't have any idea what it takes to do high quality paint and bodywork correctly. I've talked to people that think painting a house and a car are the same. Not by a longshot. The car is FAR more difficult. Depending on how nice you want it to look. That is. It can take a year or a day.