So I have been looking around for a replacement bed for quite sometime and found a guy near by with one for $100. However, the D/S fender has some rust requiring some new metal.

I am curious since my bed has a perfect D/S panel, would it be worth taking the panel off mine and putting it on his to make a rust free bed? The reason for all this is because the P/S of my bed has some serious irreparable damage from the previous owner.

 

Describe what you mean by "Irreparable" on your current bed.

Sounds like either way, you will be welding on new metal.
I would put the work into the least rusted of the two beds.
Dents can be pulled and filled, but Rust never sleeps.

 

Its not your typical dent, it is creased and wrinkled so badly on the body line that it will cost 1500-2500 to fix (w/o paint) according to 3 shops.

 

Replacing a bed side is much more work than properly welding in a small patch or two, but that is up to you.

I personally won't change a bed side unless there is a serious amount of rust........

 

If you've got the time, and lots of effort, you could drill out all the spot welds and remove the old bed side. The do the same on the good bed side and swap it over.

I've done the drilling out of several hundred spot welds...not a fun job.

 

Yeah, thats what was recommended to me. I am just not sure if it is worth the effort.

 

No matter what, even if you fix the rust on the new bed, if you have a place to store the bedside, take it off of your old bed before you scrap it...... You never know when you might need one, and unless they start reproducing full sides, the value will only go up.