99 f150 removing bed bolt question
 

i have a heavily rusted 99 f150 thanks to good ole new york state road salt with a bed that is beyond repair...

i came across a halfway decent replacement bed...got it and i plan to swap it this weekend in addition to some other work on the truck...

from all the reading that i have done...everyone says you have a better chance of seeing the real live easter bunny than you have of getting the junk TORX bolts out without issue...everyone says cout the heads off the old bolts and replace them with new ones.....i attempted to turn one of the old bolts just to see if by chance mine would turn out and the about 2"of the bolt snapped right off including the head ...well that is one less i have to cut...


MY QUESTION>> once the top of the bolt is removed by way of cutting or breaking ......how does one go about removing the remaining part of the bolt that goes through some silly clip and the mount on the frame??

is more creative cutting required??

If I were doing this on a junk bed I'd simply drill out the head using a powerful enough corded drill motor. Much like drilling the head off a pop rivet, afterwards you could just lift the old bed right off.

Once off removing the rusted-in-place remaining bolt portions should be fairly easy with all that access.

Not sure on your year if the bed bolts are held to the frame with a clip like you say or some other female threaded part, no doubt almost unobtainable from Ford or anyone else---that'd be my luck anyway.

IF its just a folded nut or U-Clip those can be matched to a new bolt's thread pretty easily, AuVeCo through Clipsandfasteners.com would be my beginning place when searching.

HTH

Once you break them, or grind them go to the next and remove all of them once the bed is removed I think its a simple clip holding them in and you can just pull them off. I did this on my 8 foot box super duty it wasn't too bad. A little FYI start looking for those replacement bolts and do not buy from the dealership last time I checked they wanted $150.00 for 1!!!!

rockauto has dorman kit. $38 for 6, $49 for 8