I have a 1994 Chevy C1500. Great small/medium sized truck for light pickup. The guy I bought it from had put in a plastic bed liner years ago. Now it's cracking, chipping and falling apart. I was looking to put some roll-on bed liner and removing the plastic one....what I found is that someone tried cutting into the bed to get to the sending unit of the gas tank! (I did it the right way a year ago and dropped the tank...) So now there's a "U" shaped square cut that wasnt finished....is there any way I can fix this? I'm scared to weld as it's right above the gas tank, plus I don't really have the right equipment...

 

My 96 truck has the same thing done to its bed. I have a plastic liner in my bed and it has a fiberglass topper over that, so basically there's no risk of it getting water/junk down there, but if I were to fix it I was thinking of cutting out a bed segment from a junk yard lining up the bed corrugations and laying the new panel over the top and seam seal it/ undercoat it and rivet it into place or weld it into place. Just make sure that if you're drilling for the rivets that you dont poke the gas tank lol

 

personally, I would pull the bed off and build myself a little access panel out of another panel like Nullhead said.

Those fuel pumps are bound to go out again, and pulling the bed/ dropping the tank can be very inconvenient

 

Having an access panel is a good idea...but I think I may just pop rivet a piece of metal underneath connecting the bent sliced piece to the bed. Then fill in the cracks with some sealant.

 

I'm surprised that they went through the effort to cut this hole in the first place...

Tbh, the bed is not hard to remove at all, just a few bolts, and a couple of buddies can slide it out of the way. Definitely my preferred way instead of dropping the tank

 

My truck had the same thing done. If your hole is not terribly large, here's what I did:
I got a "Hoffman Style" electrical box knockout seal, installed it & painted it to match. It isn't exactly beautiful, but works. They come in up to 6" conduit size which is 6.8" diameter.

The Hoffman Style is sometimes called "rain tight". It is the type with a gasket on the bottom, a small #8-32 stud sticking down & a wing nut. Just be sure to use anti-seize on the threads so you can get it out later. You could also use a snap-in type. I had both in stock, but used the Hoffman Style for the gasket so rain & dirt I sweep would not drip into the electrical connector for the fuel pump. When I had to change the fuel pump I forgot I had the hole already & started taking the bed off. Then the light bulb went off in my head. The job took mere minutes.

Plan B: Take a piece of aluminum flat bar slightly wider than the hole & slightly longer. Drill & tap the center of the piece & insert a piece of stainless steel threaded rod, perhaps #8-32 or #10-24 or 32. Make a gasket if you wish. Install it with a stainless nut & anti seize paste.

Neither of my solutions are terribly pretty, but they will be effective.

A friend did what Nullhead mentioned & just used sealant to hold it. This worked out great & looked much better than my solutions. It was super easy to peel it up when fuel pump time returned.

Hope One Of These Works Out For You!
Paul