Knowing that good Express Beds are as rare as hens teeth, I am in a position that I need to repair mine. That being said, does anybody have a good section of top rail that can be sectioned into my "farm used" bed? the next option is to go to the metal shop and have a piece bent up to replace the flat areas, then try to work the round tube area best as possible.... any ideas on how to repair the curved bottoms on the side pockets? I will try to form a piece, but don't have any confidence that it will look too good.
Thanks,
w

 

My stake pockets look equal or even worse - on an Arizona F2 Truck, that is. I somewhat doubt you will find a bed with better lower pocket corners and salvage the parts. But make sure you keep us updated how you replace those sections...

You seem to have pristine cab corners, btw.

 

 

I recently finished all of this on a 51 f3.

For the lower stake pockets I drilled out all the spot welds, removed the stake pockets from the bed, traced the rough profile of the bad area onto a 4x4 wood block, cut the profile out, sanded the block until it fit perfectly inside what was left of the lower stake pocket, used that block as a form to hammer/cut/grind/reweld sheet metal to the correct shape patch. Then welded the patch in. After some body filler they turned out OK.

For the side rails I did a lot of cutting slits in the rail, pulling it into place and re-welding the slits. In hind sight I think cutting the rail off and using some pipe to make a new one would have been easier and turned out straighter.

For the top rail on the front panel mine was too far gone to save. Didnt want the round pipe look so i made one from 1x4 rectangular steel tubing. Cut the narrow end out of one edge so I had a u-shape, bent one long side to a 45 about 1/2" from the edge, formed a curve in that same long side a few inches up from the 45 till the 45 met up with opposite long side and welded it all up. Again in hind sight a piece of pipe would have been way easier, this was a complete PITA, and way more involved than this brief explanation, but it turned out looking great. I will post some pictures later.
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How long of a rail section do you need? Ive been saving bits and pieces from f2 f3's for some time and may have something to use? Ive got one f3 parts truck that the bed is pretty hammered in the lower areas I planned on cutting it up for any patches etc that I may need. Ive also got some stake pockets I saved off a truck destined for the scrap yard and there is a section of rail on it that could be good for patching.
ill take some pictures later.

 

I'm thinking anywhere from 24"-36" would be enough, the longer the better. After talking with some of the FTE'rs, my mad plan is to section out the bad spots, run a solid piece of rod into the top rounded edge to get things straight, then weld up whatever new pieces I have. I have also thought about making fiberglass bottoms for the rusted out stake pockets, but I do like the wood buck idea, might try that.... thanks everyone for your thoughts and ideas.
w

 

On my 51 M3 my top rails are very nice, thats the good,
the bad is where the floor of the bed hits the the sides the metal mites have chewed the full length, both sides, at least its flat, eh?
good luck with ur top rails sir.
Greg

 

I didn't measure the length, but will tommorrow. I saved these from scrap so I could remove the stakepockets. They were in good shape.
Maybe the longer piece can be spliced in?

 

Exactly what i'm looking for! maybe a bit longer, not sure how long the parts will actually be until I start cutting. I'm gathering parts at this point, won't actually start on the repair for a while though.
Thanks,
w