Anyone have any tricks they used to remove the stake pockets? I have a couple that will need replacing. Are they pinch welded from the factory?

Also, I have removed all the hardware from the bedsides but it looks like maybe the lower panels on the back of the bed are welded together. Was this done at the factory or possibly by the previous owner? It appears that I may have to try and use a cutoff wheel and a steady hand in order to separate them from the lower roll panel.

 

Stake pockets should be spot welded. Matter of fact, everything on that bed, except for the fenders, is spot welded together. You shouldn't have any weld beads. I took two beds apart completely several years ago and it didn't take me a long time.

Post pictures of the area in question, if you can.

 

we just took some stake pockets off my '49. we scraped down the outside edges of the pocket with a screwdriver so we could see the spot welds. we drilled them out (as i rem it was 5/16" drill?) drilling right through the box side. we got replacement stake pockets from LMC. we cleaned up the areas on both sides of the box. we then clamped the new stake pocket to the box and rosette welded the pocket on using the holes that we had drilled through the bedside. didn't really know how others do it, but seemed to work. the pix may be part from each side (first two pics are a front stake pocket, third is a rear), we also replaced the bottom 8" of each bed side. dick r.

 

Fantastic! That's what I needed to know. I will work on that for tomorrow nights project. Got the rear roll panel removed which allowed me to move the bed back and also removed the running boards after considerable grinding an X into the tops of each bolt head and breaking off the quarter pieces until the bolt fell out the bottom of the running board.

 

When drilling out spot welds, the trick is to not go through the subsequent layers of metal, or all the way through. You want to drill out the spot weld layer just on the piece that you're trying to remove. By not going all the way through the secondary layer, i.e. the bedside itself, you'll leave yourself a good backing for welding on the new stake pockets. You want to have a minor "valley" in the secondary layer from the drill bit.

I recommend that you buy a spot weld removal drill bit. The head is shaped more flat and is not cone shaped like regular drill bits.

Eastwood sells a kit, but you can find the drill bits for sale separately a lot cheaper.

Spotweld Cutter Pro Kit 3/8 And 1/2 Inch

Try your local auto paint supply store. They might have the drill bits. If not, then ask them for a local auto body tool supplier.

Here's a good article on how to remove spot welds from eHow.com.
How to Remove a Spot Weld | eHow.com

 

we have used a spot weld cutter on other parts of the truck and i can see the advantages. in our case, we welded from the bed side hole back to the solid metal of the new stake pocket. don't know if there are disadvantages of this, but it seemed to work for this situation. i'm here to learn. dick r.

 

While this is normally good advice, and great in a perfect world, in Dick R's case, he did fine, imho. You have to have holes in one of the two pieces if you're going to plug weld it back together. And since he was throwing away the old stake pockets and replacing them with new, drilling through takes care of a couple of steps in one action. He got the junk parts off, created the holes in the exact spot he needed them in the bedside, and could weld it all back together from the easy-to-work side, inside the bed.

Looks like a job well done, to me.

 

Dick,

Your way of doing it is perfectly fine. I'm just coming from the way I see it done at work with newer panels, i.e. quarter panels, rockers, center pillars, etc. Usually when a panel is replaced, the weld is drilled out on the old panel. The new panels have an indent stamped in where the new weld would go. These indents are drilled all the way through and the new panel is put onto the vehicle. Then, everything is welded and an attempt to recreate a factory spot weld is made. Although it's very seldom accomplished.

I wasn't aware that the replacement stake pockets do not have the indentations stamped into them to show where the spot weld is supposed to be made. Thus, drilling all the way through and welding from the back is the way to go, as in your case.

 

tjdad62, now you have two ways to do it. that's the great thing about fte, lots of help, lots to learn. good luck or good welding with your project. dick r

 

tjdad62, when you put this back together you may want to get new corner braces. Nifty little piece that connects the rear stake pocket to the roll pan. Most of the time the originals are so badly rusted that they can't be indentified.

Mack Products in Moberly, MO produces them along with all the other bed parts. They're online.

 

Hey thanks!! I will look them up. I could really use some new rails that go on the inside of the bed that the wood tucks up under. Mine are pretty beat up and it's an 8 ft bed so that makes it tough. I may be able to get new ones fabbed up in town though.