I bought a new 8FT outer bedside for my 78 F250 a few weeks ago, and I have a few questions before I start ripping and tearing. The old bedside is stripped, and ready to come off, should all I have to do is cut all the old spot-welds out and drop the new bedside in then weld? Or is there anything I should watch out for? What would be the best method of taking the spotwelds off? I dont want to take the bedside off and find that I cut through something important.

 

Youll also have to drill out the spotwelds holding the wheel well liner to the wheel arch.. remove the fender braces.

I prefer Blair spotweld cutters. Get'em from Amazon or our friends at the Eastwood Company.

Tools (from memory):
Grinder
Cut off wheels
Flap discs, 36 or 80 grit
A drill and many 1/8-inch drill bits.. buy a few of 'em cuz guaranteed you'll break one
Spot weld cutters
Center punch
BFH... big friggin hammer
LOTS of clamps
A Greenlee hand-punch or even an HF hand-punch to create holes for plug welds.
Weld-thru primer
Patience

Helpful: Body saw (penumatic), a panel separator.. works like a knife to cut away that last bit of weld if ya miss.

 

Thanks a bunch, gives me a lot more insight on the project

 

eastwood's prices are ^^^^^

I like the blair spotweld cutters, but if they catch they will shear the teeth, so I'd buy 2 if youre doing a bedside. There are a LOT of spotwelds. Maybe get one of the steck panel busters too. I got mine from summit, they were the cheapest I found them. If I could say one thing it would be TAKE YOUR TIME. when you arms get tired from cutting spotwelds, take a break. They are a pain in the *** if you cut them off center and miss part of the weld. The taillights are the most difficult part. I ended up using a sawzall to cut the bedside around them and then drilling them out carefully.

I wouldn't expect the new replacement panels to fit exactly, but I'm not sure.

 

Thats what I'm afraid of, hopefully it will line up close enough so I wont have to fiddle with it too much. The sheet metal on these aftermarket body panels is pretty thin. Thanks for the tips

 

My advice...Take a huge piece of cardboard, place it between the bed and cab and draw an outline of the bedsides, same thing with the rear of the bed.

Unless you are a good bodyman, it is hard to get the bed sides adjusted as the one you removed. The front top will be in, the rear bottom will be out, the top will be to low at the front.....etc. PITA

I have done both bed sides at the same time, with the bed off the truck...what a mistake. lol

 

I guess I'm in for it haha.. beds sitting in the garage trucks outside. I got a friend who has an eye for those types of things, gonna have to motivate him to help me out for a couple hours with some free beer I guess..

 

just measure them at the same point at top and bottom front and rear before you remove them. Not much of an advantage to doing them off the truck, either, so it may make sense to wait till you have the bed mounted again. Could set it back on the frame and just drop bolts in the holes just to get it lined up.

2 things that I did on my second one that went WAY smoother than the first one... the first is go along with a piece of medium grit sand paper, find every spot weld. sometimes you have to rub with the sandpaper to reveal them. mark them with a yellow sharpie or something so you don't miss any. The second is to take the panel buster and slide it along to leverage the panel as you drill each weld. You will feel the panel "pop" out as the cutter cuts through the weld, and this will tell you when to stop. Otherwise its very easy to cut all the way through the inner bed panel that the bed side mounts to. Not the end of the world if you do, but its not what you want to happen.

Also something a few guys on here recommended, since the trucks rust out where the wheel wells meet the bedside, they said they drilled out a few big holes in the top of outerwheel well where it meets the bedside so that when they wash their trucks they can stick the hose up in there and wash everything out. The way they are from the factory there is no way to get the mud up off the top of the arch and it sits there and holds moisture and salt against that seam, and thats why they rust out.

 

AIR CHISEL! AIR CHISEL! AIR CHISEL! blow the old skin off fast, i used spotweld cutters and burnt two up they lasted me like 8 spots and then theyd overheat or dull out. use one for hard to get to spots only, or use a 3/8 drill bit and barely drill it so that the chisel just pings them apart. i went around with a center punch and drilled thru every one with an 1/8" bit first, beveled the holes with the 3/8" bit and most of the welds release themselves. i used about 12 rivets for where the front meets the front panel instead of welding there, too. i did both my bedsides this summer.

 

An air chisel will remove the majority of the sheetmetal but still that leaves the flanges.

My steps:
Center punch
Drill pilot divits with a 1/8-inch bit
Dip the Blair cutter in a lil bit of oil and go to town.

 

I used a spring punch on mine and it worked pretty well.. drilling the hole for the center pin is probably wise advise, I had trouble keeping the bit centered on a couple of mine.

 

Oh the joy I have to look forward to...

 

I might use a grinder and carefully cut away the top edge of the panel, so I can get access to both sides of the spot weld which may prove useful with an air chisel or panel breaker. The bottom will still have to be done the old fashioned way, but we'll see. Thanks for the reply's, would have never though of half of the ideas you guys came up with.

 

I have alot of work ahead of me. I need to do the same thing, but both sides, bed and front panel. lot of work. I tried to find a shorty, but there aint none around, and the few I did find, the guys were asking $800 to $1200. and they were as bad if not worse then mine. There are alot of 8 footers out there though.

 

Get yourself an air chisel use the sheet metal cutter (its the one with 3 teeth) and cut off the complete panel leaving about 2" around the spot welds,Then use the flat chisel and pull back the metal to get it in there and carefully ride down the spot welds most will pop loose then just take a grinder and clean up...

As for reattaching use lath screws with the drill head put one in every 1' foot to hold so you dont need to spend $$$$$$$$$ on vise scrips but you will need 5-10 pairs, I use spring clamps for wood work work great, You'll need to drill spot weld holes, I use a 5/16 to3/8 (Depending on you welding skills) hole every 2-3" on the panel.





I know its not a Ford
Wish I had more pic's that were better but you can see the lip I left so I could grasp the metal as I went along.

Its not hard just time consuming! TAKE YOUR TIME!!

Thats why you use lath screws because you can remove the clamps to make sure fit and finish is good before its welded...Once its welded its hard to move.



One finished pic