Dang. My dad measured my beds last night and came back with some disheartening figures. I always thought my '53 bed was compatible with beds made through '72 until I read a post here on the board a few weeks ago. It said the fenders are compatible but the mounting bolts are off by two inches. I'm not sure what year the bed on my parts truck is from but I had a bad feeling since I had found a pair of the shorty running boards in the cab when I bought it. Sure enough, the bolts are in different places so it won't work on my '53. So, it looks like I will be able to use the fenders but will need to repair my old bed. I'll have to patch the rusted out mounting area on the driver side. That should be a treat.

Arrgh!

 

Kevin, the frame rails in the rear got wider in 1973. Then about 1976-77, the beds got flat top rails instead of the angled ones. You might be able to use the newer bed by swapping the rails that the bed bolts go through.

 

Thanks for the suggestion but I need to use the angled rails since I'm restoring it to stock condition. I guess another alternative to cutting a sheet metal patch out of one bed and transferring it to the other would be to drill holes in the proper location, tack weld new mounting bolts in place, drill/grind the old ones out and weld up the holes. Anyone care to offer opinions of which option might be better?

 

Just a knee-jerk reaction, but if it were me, I would use a hole saw to drill the new holes, then use the resulting plugs as fill for the old holes. Note that the new holes would have to be drilled one size larger than absolutely necessary, but this would probably make the mounting of the fender a little easier as well. If you don't like the drill/plug idea, in the past a took a piece of round stck and cut off little waifers to act as fillers. I like the fillers better than just loading up the holes with welding rod. Good Luck, John

 

Fat,

I should have your problems. My old F-3 came with a DODGE bed for petes sake.

 

I like John's idea. Keeps things simple and gets the job done.

daryl

 

Kevin

Not sure how big of a hurry you are in. There will be some 53 bedsides available in the Quad Cities for dirt cheap soon. I'll give you a hint, they are currently painted IH red. All new extension panels installed, outside approach perfection. A bunch of tiny waves on the inside of bed. I am not spending the time to make them perfect on the inside of bed. I learned that after I blocked the outsides for 6 weeks. I am buying new but the truck is going to be driven first.

 

If I were doing it over, I would cut out little disks and MIG them in the holes. Before you get ready to do this, put a straight edge on the side and see if you have any distortion around the holes where the old bolts were torqued. Might want to make the disks larger, or do your hammering before the fill.

 

Kevin,
"I feel your pain" brother. I got a good used bed from a '72 F-100 for my '54. In my research, all I found was that the beds and fenders were identical (which they are) from 53-72. I did not know until after I got my truck back from the body shop that the newer beds had the fenders mounted higher. It looked different as it sat in my driveway. It looked like it had too much wheel showing. Even when my body man said the running boards don't fit didn't give me a clue. The truck looks good, probably only guys like us would notice it, but it does bug me. I am thinking maybe in 5-10 years I will buy a new bed (of the proper year). My truck could use a freshening up by then. The running boards are twisted a bit to make them fit since they are mounted higher than they should be.
Take a look at my gallery to see how my truck looks now (with the higher fenders)and how it looked originally.
Good luck!

 

I've run into the same issue. My '56 came with the later style bed (I believe it started in the late 60's or early 70's) which has the fender holes approximately 2" higher than the 53-56. I may do as another poster suggested and mig weld the holes shut or break down for new bed sides.

I've not made much progress on my '56 as I've been doing a lot of motorcycle riding on my Gold Wing. I have, however, located a '56 passenger car dash which will go into the truck, I'm now officially planning to take a slice out of the hood to lower the profile, french '73-79 Ford P/U taillights into the custom roll pan under the tailgate. Pictures of my progress are shown on my website. The TCI front suspension is in and the BBW kit (http://www.chesserbuilt.com) is tacked in place. I'm also in the middle of cowl corner rust repair.