TL;DR - I knew I had cracks in the front passenger corner of the bed, but I had no idea how bad it was. Luckily, I have great friends who could help get it buttoned back up!
October 19, 2024
Just before the wildly successful swapping of my stock 5th gear for one from a Toyota Dyna R452 transmission - that provided a much higher overdrive, and hopefully better fuel economy on the freeway - Zane @Speedytech7 and I had removed the bed of the Tacoma to inspect the front passenger corner for cracks.
My bed has had plenty of cracks before. In fact, this isn't the first time the front passenger corner has needed some attention: a couple of years ago I discovered that the seam had failed, and I bolted in a reinforcement plate that I thought would solve the problem forever.
Apparently, "forever" in Tacoma is 25 months. Or maybe that's just "forever" in Dan Repair years. Whatever the case, the situation was significantly worse than I'd expected, and both Zane and I got a good kick out of how completely destroyed the bed was. In fact, the fissures were so plentiful that we couldn't even catalog them all before getting started on the transmission. They were a problem for another day.
16 Hours Later, and Technically, Another Day
With the transmission work behind us, it was time to address the bed. One of Zane's buddies - Jayson @2RZNoShi1, who has a bunch of tig welding experience and is always looking to practice - came over to lend a hand, and soon the catalog of cracks had grown to "I think I saw a bed for sale on Craigslist" length.
Flapping in the breeze.
"Did you drill a hole to stop me?" -CrackDon'tCare
I think we found the following to be cracked, though Zane and Jayson may have found even more that I'm forgetting here:
- Passenger bed side: 3 cracks on bed rail, under (for the time being) the bed rack.
- Passenger bed side front bracket: two of the three bolts ripped out of the sheet metal; braket also cracked.
- Passenger front corner of bed side: completely disintegrated. Several pieces only held in place by the plastic bed liner.
- Passenger corner of front wall: flange that attaches to bed side completely detached.
- Driver front corner of bed side: 30% cracked.
- Driver bed side: 4 cracks on bed rail, one of which extended 4" down the outside of the bed.
After discussing our plan of action, we decided on a two-pronged approach. Frist, we'd set Jayson loose with the grinder and tig, hoping that he could stitch as much of the bed back together as possible. This would add a lot of structural rigidity and hopefully keep things from deteriorating as quickly as they had after my previous repair attempt. Second, Zane and I popped over to the steel yard and picked up a few sticks of 1/8" flat bar and angle that we could rosette weld into the bed rails and corners, hopefully reinforcing them for the future.
Jayson tigging away at the worst of the cracks.
Partially done, this entire seam would eventually be entirely stitched up.
Amazing what a little skill does for weld quality. If I'd attempted this with my mig, it'd have looked like I coughed up a cold along the seam.
While Jayson worked the tig, Zane manned the mig and whipped up a new flange for the to reattach the front wall of the bed to the passenger bed side, as well as patching up the passenger side bracket "as good as new."
Some 1.5" angle was the perfect substitute for the flange that had mysteriously left the building.
It's a wonder this thing didn't fall off!
That of course left me to sit back and twiddle my thumbs. If only. While those guys were doing the real work, I sprayed a coat of black-is-the-new-green rust preventer over any bare metal bits, and whipped up the reinforcements for the bed rails and front corners, hoping to prevent a similar meeting of the minds in three years' time.
Hopefully, with this sandwiched behind the corner, this bed can barely hold itself together like the rest of us.
A piece of 1" bar ready to be rosette welded behind the entire bed rail to distribute the load of the bed rack.
It was a little after 7:00pm when we wrapped up all of the body work and got the bed repositioned on the Tacoma. Save for a few flat black areas that will soon be indistinguishable under a layer of trail grime and pinstripes, the bed looked great and was certainly in the better shape than it has been in for many years!
Still, I imagine it's only a matter of time before I'm once again muttering to myself, "I think I saw a bed for sale on Craigslist."
Thanks Zane and Jayson!
In this Series
I believe the Project Farm dude ended up like Rustoleum Rust Reformer (which looks just like black paint). check out his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag46YUovPUc
Thanks! The problem here isn't rust - none of this was rusty at all, rather, the problem here is metal fatigue. If only there was Rustoleum Fatigue Reformer, I could spread that over the entire Tacoma, as well as my aching body! 🤣