Originally the plan was for Joe to weld up a few angle strips in stainless steel to match the stainless bedwood strips on the bed. However welding with stainless is really tough.. Even after bringing in a professional "stainless steel" welder to give this a try, the decision was made to scrap this plan and instead go with steel angle strips
The steel proved to be less prone to warping, deforming, and pitting as you can see from the stainless strip above (this strip has not yet been ground or polished.. so you can see how much work went into the metalwork just to fill it in enough to produce a smooth surface that could be polished)
Here is a steel angle strip after Joe welded and ground it down.
Next a thin layer of bondo was applied to each radius to smooth everything out before being painted.
New bed strips installed and ready to be tightened down. The angle strips will keep the wood in place better and reduce vibration on the road and from debris from flinging up into the bed (yes its happened.. not fun)