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Today I tore the plywood floor out the PO had installed. Intentions are the black POR treated pine boards with SS strips. Tear-out took all of two minutes - a circular saw and a speedbar made quick work of the task. But as I'm certain we're all accustomed, when you take something apart you are immediately visited by the sins of those that came before us. In this particular case I found somebody had welded in a couple steel strips on the side flanges, apparently to aid the rusty (original?) remnants. Actually the bed is in stout shape, otherwise. The part that sucks is twofold - the strips were bowed to meet the front panel flange head-on and it looks as if the bottom of the front panel was curled a bit up to help meet the side flange. Also the bed sides are a little buckled/wavy. Not obvious from the outside as the fenders cover so much of the bed sides. Is this normal? The additional reinforcing strips were skip welded so I doubt they would have had much influence on the warping. I bought eight 1 x 6s, before dis-assembly, figuring it would be close but workable. Now I'm wondering if I'll need a couple 1 x 8s for the side boards, trimmed to make up the difference in width. Or maybe I'll be able to somehow draw the sides in enough. Any thoughts?
What year is your truck? Clearly a flat-side, so 51 - up. The front looks like 52, tailgate appears to be a mid-fifties?
The center 6 boards need to be 5-3/4" wide for F-1/F-100's. Your 1x6's are likely 5-1/2" so across the center 6 boards you're an inch and a half short. You could make it up on the side boards but then you'd have to drill all new holes for the bolts on the bed strips.
I'm not sure that I know what's going on. When these trucks were new, the side flange fit over the wood in a shallow rabbet. (I assume it's the basic F-series short bed). The front flange was below the ends of the wood deck. It looks like all flanges on your bed align with each other. So, I guess the p.o. had the wood deck entirely over the flanges or entirely under. How do the side flanges relate to the bed cross-piece at the other end?
Sorry, I thought I had added my info some time ago. I'll attend to that after I finish the burgers on the grill. It's a '53 F100, 215.
Yeah, the PO or maybe even the one before him did a sad job. i guess they didn't see the advantage in having more than a few bolts holding it all to the frame. Once I cut out the plywood I found the rattles I'd been hearing. Two bolts in the front panel to the frame (sort of) a couple loose bolts for the fender braces and three holding a 1 x 4 to the rear as a nailing strip for the plywood. I can cut the reinforcing strip loose as needed and reattach, allowing the proper gap at the front panel. My issues are/were the width and the buckled sides. I'd seen some cutting diagrams calling for eight 1 x 6s (re: 3/4 x 5 1/2) but it's obvious that will be right on the edge of next to nothing for the strips to contact. I can see that I should have driven the extra twenty miles to the sawmill instead of buying big box lumber. Duh on me. Now my immediate concern is/are the buckled side panels. I don't really expect them to be normal, but...? Just a pita to deal with or do they normally require 'adjusting' - pulling in/out to compensate?
I got the same truck. I rebuilt the bed last year. I used to haul firewood and all the bed metal, especially the front panel, took a pretty tough beating when I'd chuck the logs in. I ended up replacing the front panel. But, for all the torture I put the bed through, the sides held up very well. A few dings and bumps, but otherwise very straight. I do not know what forces could cause a noticeable warp in a side panel. My guess is that it's related to the whole flange thing. If the po somehow managed to get the side flanges to align with the front panel flange, then that would most probably cause warping in the side panels.
abe's suggestion is a good one. I had similar problems with my bed and I found replacing the front panel made a lot of difference as it brought the whole structure into a better alignment.
Lots of problems in the weak spots in the back but by replacing the front panel it brought things closer into alignment so that I could make repairs.
Yeah, that's the thing. I have a lot of things to accomplish with the truck (landscaping, etc.) before returning it to its original Meadow Green. I think I'm going to cut the reinforcing strips loose far enough back to allow sliding the wood under and re-weld with scraps in the sandwich. The front of the bed looks a bit curled up to meet them so I'll have to also cut those welds loose to make the gap open up. I'll try doing it at home but if it proves too much I'll toss a few bolts back in and take it to the shop where we have three twenty ton gantry cranes to do the heavy lifting. I probably won't be able to do much with the buckled sides except maybe cover them with side strips for now. Even though the skip welds are only an inch long they must have done them all at once. I'll have to take a pic showing how much that buckled the panels.
I'm not sure what you mean by reinforcing strips? Do you mean the flange on the bottom of the body sides?
The bed is not that heavy once you remove the tailgate and you have removed your flooring already. Two people can easily handle it and it is much easier to work on those lower flanges upside down.
The 'reinforcing strips' were welded on top of the side flanges by a PO. They buckled the bed sides when they did. I can live with that, for now. The flanges weren't that bad, just the bolt holes which could have been repaired and caused less grief. This afternoon I cut the remaining bolts out, cut the welds on the forward portions of the reinforcing strips and also where they curled the front panel in order to weld the side flanges to the front flange. I guess they did that in order to make it 'easier' (?) to slide in a sheet of plywood. They also cut away the brackets on the front crossmember that the bolts pass through and keep the crossmember fairly square to the frame. (I suppose in order to curl the front panel up to meet the side flanges) They certainly went to a lot of trouble in order to do it all wrong. And then to add more misery, once I cut the front panel flange loose from the side flanges I found someone has patched the entire lower portion of the front panel, about five inches high, mudded, blocked and painted so well I had no idea it was there until I began straightening the flange. Even looking between the bed and the cab gave no clue. I guess someone was either ultra cheap or didn't like the idea of grinding off eight rivets and removing four more bolts. They certainly spent a lot more time mudding and sanding than replacing the panel would have taken. And then there's the spin-off alignment issues... the bed filler panels, etc. I'm just going to get it close for now (respectably) and enjoy being able to not worry about banging the bed up while I finish other projects around the homestead.
Everything I do is on my own so I make best use of what's available like the gantry cranes. I've removed a lot of beds to replace fuel pumps, etc. but this one took me on a spin because someone spent so much effort in doing it all so wrong. And it's the first time I've replaced a wood floor in one. It's like they went to so much trouble to 'kinda' align the hood and fenders but the cab mounts were totally shot and the radiator frame snubbers were completely missing. I'm hoping to have this done and an OD franken-tranny (make one out of two) built and installed before the Madison Regatta on the fourth. No rest for the wicked, right? ;-)
Well, after a night's rest to let the aggravation settle I found the bed had been assembled wrong. Front panel 11/16" higher on the left than the right. (vs. the side panels) I had noticed the front panel being higher on the left, by the rail vs. the divots on the cab, but shrugged it off because there were extra rubber pads installed on that side, for some unknown reason. Plus the other issues. I had already figured I'd buy a perimeter bed at the NSRA here in August. Figure I might score a deal, let alone saving myself a four hour round trip to Springfield, OH. to pick one up. I won't be installing it for a year or so but things never seem to get cheaper. So I bent, twisted, welded, fiddled and whacked it into acceptable shape - for now. Then I drilled the two (four) center crossmember bolt holes in the downslope holes (duh) so I realized it was time to call it a day and crack open a beer or two.
Now, my next question... Bolt kit has four long flush head bolts, two long button head bolts and six countersunk washers. I'm guessing the four flush heads go through the floor and the center crossmembers but why/where the buttonheads? I can guess they're supposed to go through the front crossmember but why buttonheads if they're supposed to use the extra two countersunk washers?
There are eight bolts that hold the bed to the frame. Four are flat-headed and fit into special washers which are countersunk into the bed wood. The two bolts closest to the to the front panel are the button-headed ones that fit in holes for them in the metal bed strips. The last two are cannot be seen from the top. They are regular bolts that attach the rear cross member to the frame.
06-17-2016, 03:56 PM
