Rear bed crossrail bent. Suggestions?

My rear bed cross rail is bent up on the passenger side about 5/8" over a distance of 14". The bend starts at the right side body mount. The crossrail appears to be straight to the left of the right side body mount.

I bought this as a project so I have no idea what the cause of this was bend was. The bottom of the tail light housing was crushed so it may have landed hard on a rock or stump.

As I'm not a body man I'm looking for suggestions to straighten this out.

I'm thinking I'd park the truck under the garage door opening and jack the end of the crossrail against the header of the door jamb.

Any other ideas?

I'm trying to avoid removing the crossrail from the truck. The darn thing is down to a shell as it is!

You could probably use the door header to straighten that out. It will be easier to straighten it while it is on the truck and you will probably need to put a brace under the frame where the brace is to keep the suspension from squatting too much. A little at a time and before you know it your done. Ken

If it was mine, I wouldn't fool with it too much. I would cut the piece from the bottom up to about 1/2 inch from the top of the end piece, close to where your wood body post is. Then I would take a piece of 2X4 and make a stop post from the ground up to where you want the end piece to stop when you pull it down. Then put the 2X4 out by the body corner and pull that sucker down till it stops on the 2x4. May have to put a couple of buckets of weight on there to hold it in place while you weld up where you cut the end piece. Make sure the tops of the bed on both sides are level with each other and the door opening is square with the rocker and not spread out too wide before you weld it up.

Thinking it may take quite a bit to bend that back in place. I had to replace the sill plate between my garage doors. Jacked it up, replaced the rotted wood with pressure treated then removed the jack. Why do I mention this? I'm not sure that your garage door header is such a good idea. May be better to use a tree with a large, low hanging limb.

Just read Rusty's thought. Seems the best approach.

Rustytruck said:

If it was mine, I wouldn't fool with it too much. I would cut the piece from the bottom up to about 1/2 inch from the top of the end piece, close to where your wood body post is. Then I would take a piece of 2X4 and make a stop post from the ground up to where you want the end piece to stop when you pull it down. Then put the 2X4 out by the body corner and pull that sucker down till it stops on the 2x4. May have to put a couple of buckets of weight on there to hold it in place while you weld up where you cut the end piece. Make sure the tops of the bed on both sides are level with each other and the door opening is square with the rocker and not spread out too wide before you weld it up.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea Rusty. I made the cuts and was able to level it off no problem!