I'm looking for some pics of the how the front panel of the bed joins the side panels, mine was in pieces when I got it. There is a row of holes up the sides, bolts or rivets? On the round tube on top of the front panel mine has obviously been welded together, badly. Are they meant to be welded here? Seems strange to put bolts up the sides and then weld the top.

 

Hi
Hope these help. The sides are riveted and the top corners on my F2 are welded.
The edge of the front panel is rolled and I presume spot welded together.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/eh86mfr27e3gawo/IMG_0762.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eh86mfr27e3gawo/IMG_0762.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ag0uf19tnn0ez5/IMG_0758.JPG

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bgz84vi61xs3g43/IMG_0759.JPG

 

That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks mate. I'm not tooled up to do rivets, the sides will have to be bolted. Shame.

 

It would be hard to hide the fact that it's assembled with nuts and bolts but you couln use acorc nuts to dress it up a bit . Just a thought .

 

I'll use carriage bolts so the outside will at least look ok.

 

Riveting is not that challenging. I have done a fair number of rivets, all done hot. On the frame of a different vehicle I installed over 100 rivets. Small quantities of rivets can be purchased in the states from Jim Dix, Big Flats Rivets in Horseheads N.Y. He also sells some tools.

 

I absolutely agree that riveting isn't difficult. But I have seen nicely restored trucks that had had the front bed panel removed and poorly re-riveted back in place. The original rivets were set and heavily flattened on the inner side with a waffle bucking tool. The rivet has the distinctive waffle markings. Model A's apparently used a lot of rivets with waffle bucking. The tool is available today from several sources I think. Here is a picture and link to one site I found. Stu



Waffle Tool

Edit - here's a picture of it. Stu

 

I'd very much like to give the riveting a go. If I use the waffling tool on the inside, what tool do I need on the outside? Which tool goes in the air hammer and which needs a dead mass?

 

When I repaired the frame on my project M-H I used a section of 1/2" flat plate and drilled/ground indents to accept the formed head of the rivet, then clamped the plate in position holding the rivet. I then heated the shank and used the air gun with bucking bit to form the other head. In your example I'd bolt the bed together then, removing one at a time and supported by a wide bar clamp across the span of the bed, use the waffle bit in your air gun and torch to set the inner head. Might take some practice but should yield good result. You can see in my picture that even at the factory the bucking bar slipped off the rivet sometimes. Stu

 

Aussie
I've also just noticed that there is a series of welds about 1" long and about every 6" on the edge where the side panel meets the front panel. You can just make them out in my first photo.