I am doing a rebuild on a 50 F1. W hat is the best way to remove the fender bolts from the bed side wall? They have some corrosion. I tapped on them with a hammer but afraid of distorting the sidewall. Any ideas?

 

Mine gave it up with a twist or two to break the rust. More stubborn ones may need to be persuaded with a hammer after supporting the back side with a socket larger than the bolt head. You are correct to tread lightly and avoid distorting the bed wall.

Very carefully applied heat may also help with the rust issue.

DW

 

Try a nut splitter. If it were me, I'd be real careful in trying to avoid breaking the bolt itself. They're tough to replace. Just soak, slight heat (with MAPP gas and not a torch) and take your time.

 

Personally, I wouldn't mess with them unless they were broken or damaged. Some corrosion? What is "some corrosion?" Light surface rust can be cleaned easily. Threads can be chased. It's certainly no reason to take the chance on making a bigger mess than you have now by removing (or trying to remove) perfectly good, welded in place, bolts.

 

Are you Talking about the nuts, or the bolts themselves? It sounds as if your talking about the bolts. The rusted nuts on mine came off with the above mentioned methods, but after a lot of frustration I learned the bolts were tack welded in (like Wayne said) so I just cleaned up the threads and left the old bolts be.

 

Keep in mind that that the methods varied by assembly location. My bed bolts were not tacked in - they relied on the carriage bolt square shoulders to hold position in the bed metal. Some of the originals cooperated during fender removal and could be reused. Others fought a bit more and needed to be replaced. Mac's and others sell hardware kits if you don't want to scour local hardware stores for replacements.

DW

 

Thanks for the help. These bolts are beyond saving, the fenders were allready off when I got the truck. Most were torched. I cannot see any tack welds, are
they tack welded on the inside?

 

Mine were not.

 

Mine weren't tack welded on either. Not sure if from the factory or the PO. I replaced all mine.

 

Yes, the bolt heads are spot welded to the bed if they have never been removed in the past. The way I removed mine was to take a 1/8" bit and drill a pilot hole through the center of the head from the inside of the bed. I then drilled through the head with a bit slightly larger than the bolt shank only to the point that I could see a faint circle of the shank of the bolt. I then took a pin punch and knocked the bolt shank through. This leaves only the head remaining spot welded to the bed side. I then took a die grinder with a cut off wheel and cut an "X" in the bolt head. Then carefully broke the spot welds with a cold chisel. Hope this makes sense. When I replace them I plan on using a flat head, internal wrenching bolt. Hope this helps.

Gil

 

Very good point.

 

Thanks for the help. They are tacked in place. It will be a long process to get them out, but what is time?

 

The fender bolts I have seen are all carriage bolts and once the nut is removed the bolt can be popped thru the box side