60-66 Chevy truck bed question

Just wondering how the bed comes apart on a 63 Chevy truck.
Have a patch panel that rolls up at the body line. It seems that the intent of the patch maker was to attach the repair (patch) panel under the body line.
Does the upper and lower bed side come apart? see arrow on pic.
I've Googled and tried many websites to see if I can find a blow up and so far no luck.
Looking for ideas on approaching this repair.
(hope this makes sense)


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I believe that is spot welded together on a "pinch weld" inside.

Brian

I don't remember having one of these apart lately. I would guess that in true GM fashion, the bedside is a bolt on, except for one weld at the bottom of the latch pillar, where it attaches to the rear cross member. It would be visible with the tailgate open.

If you remove the bedside, you can probably reach inside and drill out the existing spot welds between the upper and lower panels. Or you could just split them using an air chisel from the outside. Having the panel off would let you attach the new piece by plug welding along the previous spot welded seam. Or... you could reach inside with your handy spot welder and replace the OEM welds.

Going to this much trouble would probably be quicker in the long run, and your repair would be closer to original.

Just a suggestion.

I had found this article earlier, which explains the process quite well ... I thought.

That link is to a PDF document, which takes a few minutes to download before you can view it ... so be patient.

After it downloads, you can save a copy of it to your hard drive for quick and easy access.