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Damaged Service Bed Gets an Upgrade

Here at CATO we are always striving to help out any customer who is in need. We are never to surprised about what comes through our door, but every now and again we are faced with some challenges.

here you can see where the service bed was damaged right at the filler neck position. This is also where two of the doors on the service bed are damaged as well leaving this side of the bed inoperable.

here is a better look at the damaged side with one of the doors removed. As you can see the top door will not close due to the damage above and below it.

With a lot of hard work we were able to unbolt the bed from the frame and jack up the bed in order to get our forklift to lift the bed off of the truck and begin preparing for the new bed. 

Once we removed this bed from the frame, we were able to really see the damage caused to the filler neck, wiring issues, bent or cracked brackets, or any other issues we may come across when going through our checklist. The filler neck needed to be replaced, new wiring for the tail lights and 7-way harness, and a real good pressure wash on the frame and brackets for the new service bed. 

With the damages fixed and the filler neck replaced, we then set the new service bed onto the frame.

Now that he new service bed is on the frame and bolted down, we could then start on the new bumper and wire all the tail lights, brake lights, and 7-way harness.

Here you can see Mike, our number one mechanic, installing all the wiring for the back bumper. You can also see where we decided to replace the hitch and kept the original brackets in place.

Here is a great close up picture of Mike heat shrinking the wires together on the 7-way harness. 

In addition to completely replacing the service bed and bumper, the customer had a steel transfer fuel tank, diesel fuel hose, and a mega compressor that was all welded to the bed of the truck. All of these tools needed to be put back on the new service bed and welded into place.

Once everything is secure and ready to hit the road, we wanted to give the new and improved truck and overall wash. Making the truck look brand new the day the customer drove it off the lot.

Here is the finishing look to the new service bed with the transfer fuel tank in the back, the mega compressor in front, all securely welded, and the new bumper.

The complete look of the truck with a new service bed and washed clean.

This truck was a challenge for all of us, but nothing that we can’t handle. I loved that we all were ablet o work together solving critical problems and completing a task for a customer that was overjoyed to see his truck back in action.