Hi guys. This is for my '65 f100, but principle is the same....hopefully y'all have some ideas.

I am bolting my center crossmembers to the frame so I don't have to use the bolt that goes all the way through the bed wood, crossmember, and frame. What I'm confused about is how to bolt the front crossmember (by the cab-under the front bed panel) to the frame? Right now, the head of any bolt would protrude up into the bottom of the bed wood?

Any ideas how to bolt that front crossmember to the frame? Cut down the sleeve?

 

It's a fairly simple process, just notch the crossmember where the bolt goes through so that the bolt head seats level with the top edge of the crossmember. Takes about a minute with a cutoff wheel. Once the crossmember is notched I dropped the bolt in place and weld it.
Here's a photo, kinda hard to see the weld but hopefully it will explain it a little better than my words.

 

Yep, that's the only solution I could think of too. Thanks for the pic and response!

 

Om mine I just removed the sleeves since they were rusted out anyway. On the center supports i welded the lower plate solid to the channel and just used shorter bolts.
Makes a much cleaner look....

 

On mine I also removed the sleeve as it is only needed when bolting through the wood.

 

Thanks guys! I'm glad I was over complicating it!

I'll hopefully have a before/after of my new bed wood soon. This is a trial run so I'll be ready for the '56 later on. Luckily I already have most of the parts for my '56 bed because of getting the wrong parts from a vendor.