I posted over in the body and paint forum but got no response, I'm hoping one of the guru's here know if I can use the bed bolts from a newer generation truck for my 1979 F250 4x4. She is in getting painted right now and will be ready to get put back together next week. Any ideas or will regular galvanized carriage bolts work. Its a dual tank truck so the real issue is a bolt for the right front corner above the side fuel tank. Thanks fellas.

 

Standard carriage bolts have a smaller shank and head than the bolts used by Ford. Dennis Carpenter has the correct bolts. You can use the standard carriage bolts, that's what you get when you order a bolt kit from LMC (overpriced).
I haven't done it but other members have said that you can use the later bolts that have the torx head and "J" nuts.

 

I used a new bolt kit from an 03 Super Duty on my 76 SCS. I went ahead and pre-tapped the nut clips and slathered them up with anti-seize after reading stories about not being able to remove super duty bed bolts . I used the clips because the SCS has a couple of places where you can't get to the nuts on the bed bolts.

 

If you can get the right ones from Dennis Carpenter, do that. I don't recommend going the same route I did, which was to have a machine shop machine a set of larger carriage bolts down to the correct size, so the square carriage shank would fit the hole. That set of 8 bolts cost me $110, so it's definitely not the budget route. It worked perfectly, but NOT a cheap solution. (Nobody said I was a genius, ya know)

The bed bolts from LMC will NOT work correctly....they just have standard carriage bolts, and they'll spin in the hole. That'll ruin your day.

 

Ouch! The DC kit is $25.00 and includes nuts and lock washers. While the bolts are absolutely correct, the nuts and lock washers aren't. Ford used crimp lock nuts instead of plain nuts w/ lock washers.
Here's the DC bolt.

 

I also got the torx screw and nut which clips over the frame. Got them from a local Ford dealer. Already did the left front of the bed, got a new set to do the right front too.

Part numbers: Screw- N806251-S103 Nut- N803334-S439 The nut is already pre threaded, but be sure to put plenty of anti seize on the screw and nut both to avoid rust issues in the future.

 

Standard carriage bolts are smaller in size, soft, weak and can shear off in an accident.
I would not like to get hit in the rear and the bed be shoved through the back of the cab.

 

Interesting - I bought a complete Ford bed bolt and nut clip kit for an 03 Superduty. None of the nut clips were pre-threaded. I figured that was the reason why I was reading so many problems concerning stuck bed bolts in the SD trucks.

 

Do any of you guys know the correct bolt length and size of factory ford bed bolts ?

 

Yeah the second time I went to the Ford dealership, they gave me one that wasn't prethreaded. I declined, found the invoice for the first ones I got, and went back, and got the same ones as the first time. Prethreaded nut. Seemed better to me to have prethreaded than not.

 

I've decided to replace the other 6 bolts/j-clips, and neither Ford dealership I went to, could match the bolt and clip to anything they have in stock. I lost the invoices looooonnnnggg ago, and I did a google search, and this popped up from 5 years ago, and I'd put the part numbers in my post! I'll be ordering them tomorrow. I tried the Superduty hardware, but I found the j-clip was much too wide, and was hitting on the frame crossmembers, and not allowing the clip to fit in the hole in the frame completely. Turns out these are from the Ranger pickups. I had no idea at the time what they had been used on, but it makes sense, as the clip is much smaller in width than the Superduty clips.

 

I used Dorman 924-311 bolt kit on my truck recently. All the bolts are the same length but they all went all the way down. The bed is on nice and tight.

 

Did you have any issues with the quality of the threads on the bolts/nuts? I've read a lot of reviews saying these doorman ones are junk and get cross threaded/jammed/break. Any of these issues in your experience? and were the J nuts long enough to reach the holes in the frame?

 

Yes, a couple issues.
1. All "J" nuts were long enough, but I had to grind the frame about 1/4" on the third holes back.
2. I had one bolt jam (the last bolt installed) when I had about 1/4" left to go down. I called Dorman customer service and they shipped me a whole new kit free of charge.

Here is my paint thread I did. At post #71 is where I talk about the bed and the bolts.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-thread-5.html

 

1980 and later bed bolts are metric.