the PO on my truck has mangled alot of bolts and a few of them are the carriage bolts that hold the bed to the frame. The only ones i can find as a replacement are ones from LMC but they say there for a stepside, heres the link LMC Truck Parts - Page 24 I think they should work but i just need to reassurance. If anyone knows of a good place to get miscellaneous bolts and nuts besides broncograveyard and LMC please post it

 

When you say mangled, how did he mangle them? I was in the same boat, but from reading other threads, the bolts from LMC, and I believe JBG, are no different than carriage bolts you can get from Ace Hardware or someplace like that; just more expensive. The square shafts on the factory bolts are about an inch longer than the square shafts on the ones from Ace. I didn't like any of the bolts I saw at Ace, so I refurbished the bolts that were on my bed. They were really rusty, but I put them in a plastic bowl, and poured full strength CLR over them and let them soak overnight. It took almost all of the rust off, and what didn't dissolve, I took an angle grinder with a wire wheel, and knocked the rest of the rust out of the threads. Then I primered and painted them, and put anti seize compound on the threads when I put them back in. I think it'd be better to go to a pick and pull yard and try to get the bolts out of one of the trucks there, and refurbish those. Let us know what you decide to do.

 

Stepside bolts won't work on a styleside bed. Dennis Carpenter has the correct bolts for the styleside.
A lot of people use standard carriage bolts but these aren't correct if you're looking for the "factory look".

 

well the 1st bolt i tried to take out just turned in its hole so the PO probably took an impact to it or something so i had to use a nut cracker to take the nut off so i could save the bolt just in case but the other bolts are rusted to the point where there are no threads in the middle so there no saving them

 

ACE hardware has stainless steel carrage bolts that work great. You will have to cut a notch, and round off the square shank under the head in the bolts that go into nutplates

 

That's the way a couple of mine were too, but they cleaned up enough so the nut would travel all the way to the end of the threads and back off.

 

I have used regular carriage bolts, alright. I have seen the LMC bolts and they are regular carriage bolts.

If you aren't going for a factory look regular grade 8 hex head bolts or some nice pan-head allen bolts are a good way to go.

Josh

 

I used standard carriage bolts from the local hardware store and they worked great for me.