well after the better part of the summer, stripping paint, sanding, grinding drilling, welding and grinding and sanding some more, I finally got to shoot some epoxy primer on the bare metal of the bed. Spent most of yesterday removing the bed/fender bolts from the side walls and grinding misc. welds off here and there. I patched and plug welded any major holes I could find. On the stake railes in back it took some grinding through thick bondo to find the original bolt holes foe the tailgate hinges and tail light brackets. I guess the former owner built the area up to blend in with the custom roll pan he mounted. I think I'll have to put some metal tubing through the stake holes and build up the bondo(with fiberbondo)around the tubing. That should enable me to tighten the gate hinges with out cracking the body filler. Now I guess it's time to do minor dent filling and finally putting in new fender bolts. It felt good getting the epoxy primer on, now at least I don't have to worry about the metal rusting again. Also got it back on the truck, which enbled me to get it back in the garage before the rain starts tonight.