Should I Do a Bed Swap Myself or Pay Someone

Assuming you can't figure anything out to get the frame a bit better using your portable hydraulic thing and Darty03s advice (Which seemed pretty good to me), is drilling a couple holes and figuring out a CEL really more work than the hours you'll have to work to pay off the thousands of dollars you will be losing by selling this for scrap and buying a new one?

I'd spend an afternoon on a CEL and drilling a couple holes to save $5k+ any day of the week.
Take some time, you don't have to make a decision today, you have options and can still drive it as it is (barring a serious issue turning on the CEL).

 

Yeah you’re right. Couple holes take me 30 minutes. CEL is probably just because this thing has barely been driven for almost 3 weeks. Something tells me if a ran it (assuming it isn’t a major code) it would probably turn right off

 

CEL doesnt just come on cuz it wasnt driven, just saying....

CEL comes on when the module / computer has detected the same fault during 3 separate drive cycles.....

 

None of this seems like the end of the world to me. You are planning on parting out the truck based off the damage you posted in the pics? Then a check engine light? Fix the truck.

 

Been a minute fellas but I managed to clear the CEL. Managed to mount the bed flush and need to do some fabrication tricks to mount the rear bumper flush. The thing seems to drive fine. No strange pulls or anything.

Only real issue I can see in the passenger side leaf rear most mount is 1/4” lower than the driver side mount and it’s ever so slightly rotated.

Probably going to drive the thing slowly onto progressively faster and faster roads unless you all think I’m crazy. At this point I have no doubt I’ll be able to restore it to a point that it looks like it has minor body damage

 

It sounds like you have a good plan to me, drive the wheels off. Slowly work on it more as you have time and gain access to a better area to work on it.

 

You're driving a truck around that no one wants to touch cause it's impossible for them to do their work via their insurance. I just hope that you don't live anywhere near me.

This thread is a train wreck start to date. You have no business "repairing" the damage, and you're sending it on hopes that the frame is ok enough as bent. You can't weld, you don't know how to repair a bent frame, and it's rusted. At some point you have to realize that if you were to get in an accident with someone with the truck in this state, YOU ARE f**ked.

Remove this vehicle from the road- anything else is criminal.