Technical 59/60 El Camino bed disassembly and repair

Hi everyone can anyone help I have removed the bed off my 1960 El camino to do some rust repairs to the smugglers compartment floor I cant see how to remove the bed floor side panels in front of the wheel arches (see photos the one with the spanner on it ) I need to remove these to get access to the corners. They seem to be either glued down or welded cant see any bolts doesn't
Also it has a lot of surface rust and some deeper rust in the seams what would be a good product to coat this area POR 15 ? Or just a rust convertor ? With a metal primer and body deadener. I don't plan to drive this ever in the wet I know how these things rust.
Any help appreciated

 

I think they're welded. Had my center section off while I was doing my air ride on mine and they wouldn't come off either. Good luck.

 

Those are welded with a few spot welds. Easily removed with drilling out the spots and/or hammer and chiseling some of them. We sold the beat up bed panel from our '59 on ebaY and installed a Tigerwood bed. We rebuilt the floor of the smuggler's compartment, welded in a steel roof and opened it to the interior of the cab for more storage room. scrape off all lose corrosion you can and soak it in converter, then coat it with undercoating. We bought one of the commercial type undercoating systems and sprayed it in every nook and cranny we could find. It had heavy stiff for undecoating and lighter penetrating stuff for inside places like the rocker panels. It was some European brand, don't recall the name but there are several on the market.

We over thought this one and made a pan to drain water from under the floorboards. In retrospect we would have welded in a flush panel.


After undercoating the station wagon floor (that's what it is, Elky is built on a station wagon platform!) we glued down spacers made from that 3/4" imitation wood decking made from old poly soda bottles that served two purposes; leveled out the base and spaced the Tigerwood floorboards off the steel to lessen water damage to both layers. We used urethane adhesive, available at Home Depot. These align with the bolt holes in the bed strips so thoses bolt go through these spacers.


Then we machined up the bed boards to accommodate after market supplied stainless '53 Chevy pickup bed strips.


Here are the dimensions that need to be cut into the edges of the boards to fit the bed strips;


We had to glue up the Tigerwood to make the side boards that step around the wheel wells;


Once all the parts were made we trial fitted it all together. Bed strip bolts anchor it all together through holes drilled into the steel floor.


We painted the boards with automotive catalyzed urethane clear coat and sanded and polished them as we would a body to bring out the beautiful Tigerwood grain. This is a tough surface but doesn't negate the need for a bed cover or weather will soon degrade it.



Here is the finished product. Note the aluminum angle shape we screwed on the back edge to clean that up. Available at Home Depot.

 

Thanks Willys36 really helpful I will find the spot welds and drill them out my original bed floor is actually in great condition only has one pin hole of rust so will reuse it after painting. I broke a whole heap of the retaining bolts so will have to drill them out and re-tap.
Did you buy the replacement floor for the smugglers compartment or just make one up I have seen you can buy this part but coming from Australia it comes out to $200 usd per side with shipping. I think it is this part here I have seen one site it says it will fit el camino but not sure

 

We had to replace all the floor pans including the smugglers. We made all our own panels.

 

Thanks mate you did a great job will do the same and just replace the rotted areas with flat metal grateful for all the photos thanks again