'03 Bed repair

[Curtludwig]

Folks,

I need a repair panel for the bed on my '03 Ranger 4x4. It appears NOBODY has one. Apparently this is considered too new to need repair. I'm tempted to just buy the newest model repair panel JC Whitney has and make it work as best I can...

The problem is that I've got an '03 with only 33,000 miles. It must have done some sitting at one point. There are stick on pads of some sort under the bed to protect from the heat of the exhaust. Where the pads are water has been trapped against the bed and rust has formed. One small failure of the paint topside and thats all she wrote. I'm planning to pull the bed, cut out all the rust and weld in a new panel. Forming new bed channels would be a major PITA and if I do it I'll use 18ga and have a section thats stronger than the existing metal but a big waste of my time...

HELP!

 

[Rifleman]

Find one in a boneyard with a wrecked bed. Cut out an oversized section to add to yours.

 

[KELLY88]

Try scouring around to find a truck with the same bed and same color. If you match 'em up just right you can replace the whole bed and never know the difference.

 

[Curtludwig]

Replacement beds are EXPENSIVE best I've seen so far is $1000. If I could get a repair piece I could fix it for around $100...

I hate to use a piece from another bed because that metal's age has already compromised it. Might be okay if I were in the southwest but then I probably wouldn't have a rusty bed already...