Thought I would start a thread just for the custom bed I'm building. I had a local machine shop bed up my bed sides. They are 11ga. Then I went to the local steel yard and picked up my steel for the build. I picked up 1x1, 1x2, 2x2, 1 1/8 round and 1 1/4 round. I'll post as many pictures of the build as I can.

 

This looks like a good project---Subscribed!

Dan

 

Wow...11 ga, that's beefy! 14 ga is considered to be overkill. You shouldn't have to worry too much about warpage from welding on those pieces.

 

I'll be following. Always enjoy seeing any fabrication from scratch. Are you going to stay stock in appearance or incorporate custom touches?

 

I'm going to add a few custom touches. Your build is what inspired me to build my own bed.

 

11 was a typo. 14 is what I used

 

I'm glad you're giving it a shot. I personally didn't think building the bed was that difficult. The added custom features took a little extra time and thought.

 

Good for you! Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

 

Fantastic!!
I can't wait to see your progress. You're off to a good start


Bobby

 

Doing the same thing to my '56 C-600, but with a 9' bed. Have to order the front panel and tailgate for a long bed before building the frame, and I'll be watching your build carefully.
Drewski 2 was the impetus to attempt doing it myself. A masterful job!!


Regards, Mark.

 

Here is a bed that I built some time ago, the rolls were bent up really bad. I opted to cut them off and weld on some round tube. Unfortunately I did not take photos of this process but here is the end result. If I were building a bed from scratch I would not hesitate to skip the rolled edges and go ahead and weld on tubing instead, especially where rust/corrosion is an issue.

 

Looks good Charlie, I would have attempted to build my own too but life too far away from a shop to bend the pieces for me..
I'm sure you will do a fine job Oldcrow..

 

I got to thinking about another tip on your custom bed...I used a length of 2x4x0.120 wall rectangular tubing instead of that flimsy sheetmetal sill. This really stiffens up the bed. I rounded the lower corners of the stake pockets and used a modified Pros Pick hiding hinge setup. Here is a pic of the work in progress, the pic in my previous post shows it ready for paint.

 

Trying to get X -BIL to post his build but.... He built his bed out of stainless steel. Sides bent similar to yours, then welded on tubing for the "roll"

 

Good move CharlieLed. That is a real weak spot in the Ford design of the bed. I reinforced my poor old, beat up, 2nd hand bed in that area with a 16 ga. patch and it made a huge difference.




Oldcrowbarber, you should never have any problems with 14 ga. steel.