Harrier, If the bed you are looking at on Craiglist is off of a later truck, depending on how it is built, the bunks or rails underneath may be too wide for your frame. The frames on most all trucks less than 1 ton have been wider than the 34" SAE standard since about 1975. It is a nice looking bed though and you would have a lot more than what they are asking in the steel to build one. Maybe it could be lengthened if it is too short.

 

OK, so I finished it off today finally.

Here's the pics to prove it.

Ford designed this bed so that two of the forward nuts cannot be used with carriage bolts for the bed strip. There is NO WAY POSSIBLE to get any kind of wrench on the nut. They are located INSIDE the front stake pockets. No socket will fit. No open end wrench will fit. Since you can't turn the carriage bolt (because it's designed to NOT turn) there is no freaking way to tighten the nuts.

There, I'm through ranting now...

The new F4 Sport Script Stake Bed...

 

Hey Joe,
I know you did a lot of work to get that Ford script on there -
but it does look good! Nice one. It looks like a perfect fit.


Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Thanks Ben.

I'm happy with the way it turned out. The purists may be unhappy with it, but I'm grinning now that it's done.

 

Joe if you are going to make stake bed sides , let me know and I can make some cardboard / paper templets of my 31 's side boards if you like the look. I found a place to get the locking hardware too

 

Joe, that is down right beautiful! I'm very jealous.
Chris, those stake sides are awesome. I notice your flatbed has stuff on it too. It's amazing how they collect stuff.

 

That is a really good looking bed Joe. Totally nuts about the front carriage bolts though...
I couldn't have a flat bed truck, it would be so full of stuff that I could never drive it.

 

That's my motorcycle helmet ! My wife wears it in the truck because she thinks the door is going to open when I drive fast

 

Heck, those purists would always find something to harp about....LOL
The way I see it you're doing them a favor.


Looks great!
Bobby

 

Yes, Chris, I do like the look. I'd appreciate the templates also!

 

Thanks Joe. I hope you find one you like as well.

 

Thanks a lot. It's a common problem with flatbeds, at least in my garage. It's the perfect place to set things "temporarily" until they can be put away where they should have gone in the first place... And I'm just as guilty as anyone.

 

I literally LOL'd at that one!

 

Thanks Bobby.

I really don't care what anyone thinks about my truck... except maybe my wife... but she doesn't care what I do to it.

After I got the bed, I started measuring things to see where I should cut and paste it to make it into a 9 footer. That was going to be a task beyond my skill level. So then I measured the truck and decided I would probably like the bed just the way it is. I was right.

Anyway, a purist would paint it Silvertone Gray as it was originally. But I really like blues and reds, and I have been "deciding" on paint color for 4 years now. BTW that's how long it took me to decide on the paint color for my Harley. And it's blue... But I still don't know what color I'm going to paint Betsy...

And I won't really be finished with the bed until I build the stakes and replace the bed boards with some nicer wood. The plywood is functional, but it's too thin at only 1/2". This is noticeable in the pics showing the front of the bed strips. The two that overlap the stake pockets (where the nuts are unreachable) are bent slightly upward because the thinner plywood allows the bed strip to "touch" the stake pocket. Thicker bed boards would prevent that from happening.

But this will work fine as a temporary solution until I can afford the better wood.

And it has better support than my homemade bed even using the same plywood. I haven't figured that out yet, but it must have something to do with the bed strips... because the bed has the same number of cross-braces as the one I made?

 

Looks good Joe! Temporary boards are better than no boards.......but I don't envy you having to take out/replace all those bolts again!
I didn't use strips on mine, I screwed the boards directly to the X members...like trailer decking. Cost of strips and shipping was too much for my lowbuck build.