I guess what I'm wondering about is how much time would be involved and could it be done diy?

 

My bed sides were so bad I would have been replacing the inner pieces as well. I bought a whole box brought up to Canada from Texas ( so I was told ) I also oil sprayed the new box while it was upside down and again when it was in place on the truck, and installed wheel well liners.

 

No experience repairing panels yet, but you can try LMC. They have panels.

 

if youre doing the job yourself and aren't worrying about time then you could do the patch panels. But they're not super easy to get in there without getting warpage in the panels. But if done correctly it can work and as long as it's a good quality filler thats not too thick it should last a long time. in my opinion though it is always better to replace the panel, use a weld through primer and oil all of the pinch welds when done with paint. Then you don't have the welded seams to worry about with a patch.

 

The problem with patch panels is the burn thru on the back of the panel and the body filler used to hide the repair. When you weld a panel on, you burn the paint coating off the back of the panel. Sometimes you can get to the back side and sand it down and paint it. But you can't over the wheel section because of the inner wheel house. I'd say a whole bedside is the nicer repair if you are going to keep it for awhile