Disassembling my late '50 f1 and I am about to do the bed. As I am talking to my Dad about unbolting the sides from the end, he says "as far as I remember, the bed sides were spot welded to the cab end wall on my '50."

So, how were the bed walls originally assembled at the factory? Welded or bolted?

It is very possible I have an after market bed, but I am a purist when it come to restoring a vehicle so I want "original" (looking) when possible.

If welded, who and/or where is a good supplier? Mar-K, Mid-Fifty? They seem to be the favorites on previous threads.

Thanks

Dan Sokol
Goodyear, AZ

 

Dan, all the stuff I remember the beds side and bulk head were welded together. fenders, & light. I heard that tailgate pivots were mounted both ways, some were bolted on, others were bolted and welded on both.

 

On my 48 that is all riveted


Ed

 

Remember that 1950 was a change over year and used two different bed styles. My 1950 is an early version with raised bed sides. My front bed panel was riveted on the sides and a factory weld on the top on each side. Hope this helps.

 

I recently removed the steel bed from my 50 F-1 and the bed steel was spot welded to the bed sides. Quite a job to remove it and I replaced it with a wood bed. I have seen a reproduction in a catalog but can't remember where. Good luck.

 

My 49 was riveted at the front at the cab
Bed floor was spot welded to the sides

 

My late model 50 has the front bed panel spot welded as well. Also, the rear fender bolts are also spot welded just in case you planned on replacing those. I resorted to just cleaning the threads on mine and putting new nuts and washers, leaving the welded threads.

Jonathan

 

In taking the fenders off, the bolts didn't fare so well so I had to grind them off. That was not fun.

So sometime during the '48 to end of '50 run, the bed walls went from riveted to spot welds. My guess would be when they stopped installing the sheet metal floor over wood during the 1950 production run. Mine being a late '50 run would make it spot welded sides to bulk head under that theory.

Now, how would that be best duplicated with reproduction parts available today?


Dan Sokol

 

You could buy a spot welder I suppose....

What I do is drill holes in the flange of the front bed panel and plug weld them with a mig. Grind welds as necessary

 

The ones that I have seen were riveted. When I bought new reproduction bed parts the manufacturer indicated that to go "all stock" they should be riveted. He went on to say that most guys are welding them together. That was for my 52.

Dan

 

Unless you are a purist, or your truck will never see anything but warm sunny days, you may want to consider just using small round-head torx or allen bolts. That way if any rust or dent damage comes your way, your life will be much simpler, and except for the allen or torx hole, they don't look too different than rivets.