Spot weld holes drilled for the bed/access panel brace. The four corner bolts will secure the access panel. I've got some SS button head bolts I'll probably use instead of those hex heads.

I drilled the holes in the c-channel ever so slightly bigger than M6 bolts, then put bolts in to hold the M6 nuts in place so they'd stay perfectly centered with the holes, rather than over-sizing the holes to match them. Smart, right? But then I got dumb and removed the first one too soon after welding the nuts, resulting in rubber metal that snapped off. Argh. Then the remainder snapped mid-bolt during extraction. Double argh. I finally got it extracted from the other side. Lesson learned. I let the others cool and it was smooth sailing.

Now I need to get a M6 tap, as that nut is stripping out softer gold bolts I used at first. But, it seems okay with regular steel automotive bolts, so if that didn't fix the threads, a tap oughtta.

Owner caption November 2021 · Photo 658 of 705