Patent ID: 7703208

Claim:
A method of forming an inner upright wall panel for a vehicle box assembly, such as a box assembly for a pickup truck, comprising: feeding a flat, wide and substantially continuous metal sheet into and through a rolling mill to effect progressive three-dimensional deforming of the continuous sheet in the longitudinal direction thereof with the longitudinal deforming of the continuous sheet being substantially symmetrical on opposite sides of a longitudinally extending centerline of the continuous sheet; deforming the continuous sheet by roll-forming as it passes through the rolling mill to define a large panel having a channel-like top rail monolithically joined thereto and defined along each edge of the deformed continuous sheet so that the deformed continuous sheet exiting the rolling mill has said channel-like top rails which extend lengthwise thereof; and slitting the deformed continuous sheet lengthwise along the longitudinal centerline and transversely severing the deformed continuous sheet to effect creation of a pair of longitudinally roll-formed wall panels which are substantially identically sized and have said channel-like top rails extending along a longitudinally extending edge thereof.