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Thank you, but I was asking about cutting a hole through the bed and placing a piece of steel plate over it after completion. Can't take bed off due to three tool boxes and a ladder rack. Anyone who has done this or know someone who has?
If you know where to cut, and have a good cutting tool, and don't damage any of the fuel pump fittings or wires while cutting, in principle you could cut an access door. You might be able to find a pre-fabbed door with frame made out of metal that would work, not look too bad. You want to make sure you don't arrange things so you are letting water drip from the bed right onto the fuel pump.
If a good pro shop can do your bed as 3-steps suggests, if they can really do this for an hour or less worth of labor, as hard core of a DIY guy as I am, I would be thinking about farming this job out. If this is a work truck, with any luck this will be the last fuel pump you put in, I'm thinking..
Thank you, but I was asking about cutting a hole through the bed and placing a piece of steel plate over it after completion. Can't take bed off due to three tool boxes and a ladder rack. Anyone who has done this or know someone who has?
Where are you located? If you cut a hole it may be a source of severe corrosion down the road. Seems like a good idea though, just seal it up real good.
Thats a hack. drop the tank and do it right. And yes, its a pita.
Well it's a hack if poorly done, but it's a custom upgrade if you do an excellent job of cutting and of fabricating the new cover.
Come to think of that, probably the best thing would be to get at least a section from the floor of the bed of a junked truck, so you can make the replacement panel a little bigger than the access port you cut. Again, be careful what you use to cut, and how you do it, don't blow yourself up by cutting into a fuel line and/or a live wire (not funny if you actually do it)
Cut out a corresponding section from the junk bed about 2" wider and longer than the hole. Attach cover with sheet-metal screws. Consider carefully where the pointed end of the screw will end up, how far it will be from wires and hoses.
For a work truck, which is unlikely to ever be displayed at Pebble Beach, I guess I don't have a problem with this, I would consider it "correcting an OEM mistake" in that GM really ought to have put a removable cover in the bed in the first place, IMHO. A fuel pump may last the life of a vehicle, but in general they do not.
I would use a BIG hole saw for this job. After you have done the fuel work I would paint or undercoat the edges of the hole to prevent corrosion. Mitch has a good suggestion on finding a junkyard truck so you can cut a section out of its bed, its likely corrugated so it will be nice to have a perfect fit. Personally, I love epoxy, so I would probably epoxy the entire patch to the bed. Using an epoxy will also seal off the patch/hole from unwanted condensation getting underneath and rotting or perhaps dripping all over the fuel stuff. If you ever need to work on it again you can bust up the epoxy and pop off the patch. Lots of other ways to do it as well.
Thank you, but I was asking about cutting a hole through the bed and placing a piece of steel plate over it after completion. Can't take bed off due to three tool boxes and a ladder rack. Anyone who has done this or know someone who has?
I was going to say, that's the redneck way of doing it, plus you'd have to know EXACTLY where the fuel sump was or you'd end up cutting bigger holes playing guessing games.
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