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Long time, no see everybody! I'm back in anther good ole 1978 F150 4x4 short bed. I love it and have been working on it and driving it daily. It was hit in the rear drivers side before I got it but the seller had "parts to fix it". I figured it was a patch panel or something but as it turns out its a whole short bed. He delivered it to my house and I was actually surprised as to how good the bed was. So my question is what do I do? Do I buy a patch panel to fix my truck and sell the donor bed whole to someone who needs it (and prevents chopping up a decent short bed as they aren't exactly just laying around anymore). OR do I cut what I need out of the donor and patch my bed with it? I've talked to three body guys and each one of them had different answers. 1. Cut and patch with donor. 2. Buy after market panel to patch. 3."Hell I can drill and pull that out man!"
Whoa!! Don't cut up that donor bed. That looks pretty darn good to me especially since short beds are getting harder to find in good shape. If it were me, I would either buy a new quarter for your current bed and patch it in or have a dent guy look at it. May take a while but some of those dent guys are pretty good. If I were in the market, I'd be interested in that donor bed but I already have one for my truck
X2! DO NOT CUT UP THE DONOR BED!!
I would swap beds and sell the original to someone who could use it. Either that or buy a replacement quarter, cut out the area needed and patch it in.
I would buy a full quarter panel, not the repair panel they make for that section.
The repair panel fits poorly and the taillight section isn't cut out, it's just blank. There would be a lot of cutting, trimming and fitting.
Here's the repair panel, you can see how it lacks detail the full panel has and will require a lot of work to make it fit.
The only available bedsides now are the long bed but, in your case, that won't make any difference.
And the price difference between the two, I'd definitely go with the full panel and cut the section that I needed out.
Donor has rust in floor and front wall but I'd think those would be easer to fix and nt as not icicle if they weren't perfect.
You're right, that's a relatively easy fix and won't be as noticable. The panel is available aftermarket for around $100. and OEM units I believe are still available too. With the exception of the tailposts, the bed internals are all the same from 73-96.
I appreciate the advice. I'm supposed to pull my fuel tank and swap for a 38 gallon this weekend and pulling my original bed and swapping may be on the agenda as well. Is it really a big job? I have never pulled a whole bed but I'd think it was pretty simple. Also, what would my original bed be worth? It's got rust in the floor but besides the obvious damage, it's very nice.
Pulling the bed isn't too difficult. The biggest problem is the carriage bolts tend to strip out the square hole in the bed.
What I would do is get underneath the bed with a wire brush, clean the threads of the bolt that are sticking out, then spray with a good penetrating oil, Kroil or PB Blaster are two good ones. Then let the bed sit for a day or two.
Remove the nuts from the bed, unplug the rear taillight harness. If you still have the bumper attached, unplug the tag lights, disconnect the fuel filler & tank vent line next to it.
Check and make sure there's nothing else left to remove/disconnect.
You should now be able to lift the bed off the frame.
Not sure about the shortbed, but a long bed weighs 397 Lbs. The shortbed will be less.
Thank you sir. I'll brush the bolts and soak them tomorrow after work and then again Friday. Hopefully by Saturday they will be ready to come off. I ordered a bed bolt kit and have new ones waiting to go back on. Thanks for the info.
Thank you sir. I'll brush the bolts and soak them tomorrow after work and then again Friday. Hopefully by Saturday they will be ready to come off. I ordered a bed bolt kit and have new ones waiting to go back on. Thanks for the info.
I hope you didn't order the LMC bolt kit, all that is is 1/2" carriage bolts that are overpriced. The Dennis Carpenter kit has the correct size shank and the much larger head.
Well crap.... that's what I get for pulling the trigger before looking it up I guess. I suppose I'll use these for now and order the correct replacements and swap them out when they come in. Thanks for the heads up!
Hi there, I have built a few of these old girls now, still the nicest truck ford ever made IMO. If the rust on the second bed isn't bad than go with swapping it, as said a few times , they are getting hard to find and it would be a sin to cut it up . Repairing the old one is totally dependant of how fussy you are. In a shop , it's not a bad fix to just pull the damage out or put in a repair panel. If you want a real nice job then replace the entire box side and panel bond a new panel on it, almost no fill work to deal with and stronger than welding one on. To remove the old one you just find a drill out the spot weld, about 20 on the inside rail, a few inside the taillight and then the ones one the front wall of the box. Clean up the surface, get some panel bond and a dozen pair of vise grips and glue the panel on. 8 hours later it AIN'T comin off and makes a show quality repair . It's all up to how you want it to look when it's done. Swapping the box would be the easiest and cheapest way but I would still fix you box and then sell it, depending when you live they bring big bucks.
I'm planning on swapping them whole and finding a new home for the original bed. I can live with the donor bed having repairs in the floor and front wall that aren't exactly perfect but on the bedsides.... it would eat at me.
That looks pretty darn good to me especially since short beds are getting harder to find in good shape. If it were me, I would either buy a new quarter for your current bed and patch it in or have a dent guy look at it. May take a while but some of those dent guys are pretty good. If I were in the market, I'd be interested in that donor bed but I already have one for my truck
