2000 Stepside Chevy, help with fixing broken bedside?

[JeffesaurusRex]

Hey guys, I have a 2000 Chevy stepside. I took it off road yesterday and over a small body of ice. Towards the end of the ice it became too thin and I dropped off, hitting the back of my bed onto the solid ice and breaking a good size chunk off the driver's bedside behind the tire. I left the piece behind, not knowing I had broken it off.

My question is, to anyone that knows or may have experience, what are my options? I was going to take the bedside off and fiberglass it. There are no hard-to-work areas, it's just a slope that curves under the truck. But I was told that the fiberglass used in the newer truck beds is a special type and has to be worked and cured in a special environment.

So my other option is a new bedside, and I don't have any money. Does anyone know the cost of a bedside, or where I can even find one?

Any other options?

Thanks for any help in advance!!

[RhinofromWA]

Wrecking yard??? Have any within a decent range?

You would most likely have to repaint the bedside to match.

[JeffesaurusRex]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking, there are several great junkyards but the problem is most of them don't want to part out a good bed, they want to sell the whole thing. If I have to I guess I can go in there and dent one side so he will sell me the other a few days later but that's pretty dirty, I don't want to resort to that. I'm just on a budget, I can't afford the whole bed and maybe not even one side.

I'm pretty skilled with laying fiberglass but have no knowledge of the newer materials, I've only ever layed regular fiberglass mat onto a regular fiberglass piece to replace cracks and such. I don't think this bed is made of your average fiberglass material so I have no idea if it will bond or what.

[xrfred]

if its a new body style 2000 then its not even conventional fiberglass it is polypropalyne PP it probably had glass fibers in it as well. they are injection molded. best you are going to do is rough it up and try to glass it. maybe a good body shop might be able to weld it. pp is a thermoplastic

[Chickenhauler]

Don't know much about the plastic part, but I would reccommend that if your bedside struck the frozen surface that you at least check the rear diff fluid for water contamination. If the bedside got that low, it's possible that water came in the vent for the diff.

[JeffesaurusRex]

if its a new body style 2000 then its not even conventional fiberglass it is polypropalyne PP it probably had glass fibers in it as well. they are injection molded. best you are going to do is rough it up and try to glass it. maybe a good body shop might be able to weld it. pp is a thermoplastic

Can they even fix it though without the piece that broke off? You say that they have to weld it.

So I guess my only option is to try and glass it and risk wasting money or buy a whole new bedside.