That welding shop in Sparks had me rethinking my whole bed setup

I drove out to that custom fabrication place off Interstate 80 in Sparks last Friday to pick up a bracket for my tool box. While I was waiting, I saw this 2019 Dodge Ram 3500 they were working on. The owner had them cut out the entire inner bed wall and replace it with diamond plate that had embedded tie-down tracks running the full length. It looked clean, not like the bolted-on crap you see at auto parts stores. The welds were smooth and they even integrated a recessed LED strip into the top edge. I got to talking to the guy and he said he spent around 800 bucks on the whole mod, including the lights. It got me thinking about just cutting into my own bed instead of buying those expensive drop-in liners. Has anyone here done a custom bed wall replacement on a newer truck?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy82026d ago

Did the truck have a factory spray-in liner underneath that diamond plate, or did they just lay it over bare metal? I'm wondering about rust long-term if moisture gets trapped between the panels. Also, what gauge diamond plate did they use, 14 or 16? I watched a buddy do his 2018 F-250 with 16 gauge and he said it was a nightmare trying to get the curves right around the wheel wells without kinking it.

shane_clark25d ago

Trapping moisture between metal layers always ends the same way.

grant47825d ago

I did a similar install on my 2013 Ram 2500, so I can share what I found. I ended up putting a factory-style spray liner down first, because bare metal just invites rust for sure. From my experience, 16 gauge was a lot harder to work with than I expected, especially around the wheel wells like you said. Your buddy is right, it wants to kink if you look at it wrong. If I had to do it again, I'd probably go with 14 gauge, even though it's heavier, just because it held the bends better for me without all the headache.