This might sound crazy but has anyone ever tried to replicate the OBS fenders out of metal instead of continuing to use the fiberglass ones? I know the mold of the fiberglass is probably not that easy to match with metal. I am no body man myself. I was just wondering?

Sheetmetal body parts are stamped out with huge dies in hardcore presses; the tooling is ridiculously expensive and that's why nobody's doing it. The aftermarket could set up to do this but they must not see the market for the parts being big enough to recoup their investment in the tooling.

The factory probably didn't do them out of steel, guessing here, because they knew the bed would get twisted around a lot, and also probably hit every now and then because it sticks out. Fiberglass sure does bust up all to hell but it can be repaired a little easier than if you'd smacked the hell out of a steel fender.

It's a cool idea and not a bad one, but I don't know if you'll find anyone willing to invest the bucks to make them.

Probably take a short-run place like these guys for example: http://www.matrixmetalcraft.com/pressing.php and a lot of cash up front...

Richard

Thanks for the response Richard, been drooling over your trucks since I started lurking here anyway. I might talk to some of the welders at my unit and see if they want to take on a project.