I curious if anyone on here worked at or maybe did work for a body shop and could give out some information.

I'm looking for a rough estimate on what the labor hours is for a bed panel on my truck, both sides. I know every state or place is different on labor rates per hour, most here in Minnesota I think are $50-55 an hour from what I've heard. Just trying to see what I'm looking at for a possible labor rate charge on top of buying the panels. Through Chevrolet they are about $900-950 for both bed sides.

My truck is a 2012 Silverado Crew Cab short bed, so five feet nine inches.

Maybe even one of you is local and knows of a good place that would do solid work or does side work to help replace the panels when the time comes.

 

 

I would assume most big name branded shops use some sort of hour estimate program like Mitchell or something to figure out labor hours. I just don't have access to that, I can view auto repair hours per job but not body work.

Someone told me once it was over 13 hours per side but that seems crazy for just labor.

 

 

Considering you have to remove the bed to replace a bedside and the extra prep work 10 Hours per side is not unreasonable. Some time things such as lights don't fit the opening properly, or the tail gate doesn't line up. You usually have to put the bed back on once you have it fitted and verify the body lines are correct and that the panel is set correctly before welding. The panels also have to be prepared for welding. Even with a spot welding machine, The panel still needs prep work.

 

Probably out of context,

When I was first rear-ended, it crumpled the passenger side bedside, popped it loose from the frame and it tapped the back of the cab.

The rear bumper was rolled under the truck.

Repair + paint + blending was just over $5k.

 

 

Yeah, no doubt there is all that to consider with body work. The GMT-900 don't have any real body lines to line up with on the bed it's more so that it's level I guess. The door are completely flat if you take off the side molding pieces.

I'm still curious if anyone has the labor hours for the job as in just replacing the panels. It would then be easier to make a educated guess at adding an additional 3-5 hours for various reasons plus prep/paint.

Maybe the mechanic side of my comes out a little because the book will sometimes say 13-15 hours for an engine R&R and that's a **** load of stuff to do and not screw up lol.

 

 

The color of my truck was only made for 2 years, just 2012 and 2013.

Finding the same color bed is really hard from a junk yard. Of the few I've found they are several hours away and most tend to be is somewhat worse shape and I can't actually inspect the problem prone area's with my own eyes until I got there. And of those beds they want a minimum of $1800 and most are right at $2,000 for a replacement bed. Other colors and painting is an option but the initial cost of a rust free bed is just so high already unless I found one for cheap somehow.

I'd drive pretty far if I knew it was rust free, like if someone was able to actually see it in person. Replacing my panels does give me little more piece of mind that once they are replaced I at least know the condition of the rest of the bed. Doing the repair means I or they could clean it up and seal it up good. I also get to keep my Line-X bed liner.