Here is a Pic of my truck as it sits today. This is her pretty side, the other side is primer grey as I was originally going to fix the bed.

Here is some of the pieces to my bed.

Both inner bedsides bolted together. The fitment was terrible! using a tapered punch to line the bottom holes up and had to round out the bolt holes on top to accept a bolt. Don't worry, the square holes are still square!

The tailgate pillar I couldn't find a reproduction unit. So, luckily the junkyard had a few dentsides to choose the best from! Picture is a mock up, we sandblasted them and welded some new metal in where it had rotted away.

Using the tailgate to square up the end and a couple pieces of wood cut to length to square up the rest. My truck was on the other side of the state, but luckily the body shop had a dentside sitting outside to take a bunch of measurements off of. Ohhh, and my buddy saying this project sucks...he gets roped into all my big projects. He was a big part of the brains to this task! Very thankful he was here to help.

One outter boxside hung! not welded yet though

All the spots in red are where we had to grind through the E-coat as this is where we will be spot welding. The red "paint" is weld through primer.

I was worried that although we measured the truck sitting outside a dozen times, that the box may be square and look nice off the truck, but once installed it may not be wide enough and look off. Unfortunately some guys son had passed that sold a bunch of dentsides parts on ebay. Fortunate for me we were able to take a look a his stuff. There were roughly 20 dentsides sitting around in various conditions. I found a cab that is 99% rust free, where mine has bad rust along the drip rail of the window. Once again, fixable but a $300 cab that comes with new floor pans and 99% rust free is a steal. Loaded the cab up into my buddies truck and back to the shop. I suggest more than 2 people putting a cab into a truck. It took us over 3 hours to get it in the back of the bed as there was about .25" on each side and it also weighs a ton.

Here is the bed mocked up against the cab. I think it looks good! good enough for me any ways.

These panels came lightly dinged up, so some body work was needed. LMC says they will come with minor defects. The only one that bothered me was the bed floor which was shipped with wood all around it except a 6" strip in the middle which of course has dents. You would think LMC would spend a bit more on wood for better customer satisfaction... guess not. My buddy has me walk all around the box circling dents with a sharpie. Then after I thought i was done, he went around and circled all the others I had missed. My eyes VS. a professionals.

After it was all spot welded, we scuffed the entire box in 150 grit and then primed it. After that, we scuffed the complete underside and bedlined it. Looking pretty good!

A week had went by which let the primer cure and we then went to town blocking the primer down. 320 grit and then again with 600.

Here is my paint before it was all mixed up. Any guesses?

Did you guess grey? Kind of crazy how many colors going into a boring color as grey! Interesting enough it was much easier to pick a color than i thought. My buddy gave me 4 books about 2" thick with all sorts of different colors for exterior, interior, trim, wheels, you name it. However they were inch by inch squares. It may look good small but on a big scale who knows. I'm sure i would have been happy either way. Instead i looked at the vehicles at the shop. Ford truck, grey was too dark. Jeep Grand Cherokee, paint was nice but the flake was too large. Mercedes GLE, perfect, the shade i was looking for any fine flake. I ended up picking Selenite Grey which is the standard Mercedes grey i believe. I am beyond happy with the color!

Imperfections on the tailgate: The tailgate came spot welded together. I ground down the spot welds and filled them in with bondo to give it a better look. Guess my body work wasn't the best as you can still see all of them. Oh well, atleast its the factory look doesnt bother me too much.

Imperfections on the bed: I only saw one other than a bit of clear we have to touch up. Small dent on the bed rail. not too much of an issue as i plan on buying bed caps. Speaking of doesnt anyone know where i can find some? I have yet to find a supplier.

Since i have already gotten this question ill answer it. Why did we mask off the bed? We trapped in whatever dirt/oil was in there. Less time spent on wiping all the surfaces down and less of a chance for imperfections in the paint.

Now that my project is essentially complete, I thought id share my progress and what I thought of it.

I have a 1978 F250 long box regular cab that I originally bought in CT. I towed it to Michigan where i now live and began my restoration. I've since done the entire driveline and now im starting on the body. My bed could have been saved but like many CT/MI trucks, the bed has seen its fair share of winters which of course im getting at it is a bit rusty but saveable however i thought it would be a wiser move to build a brand new box out of reproduction parts. I ordered everything I thought i needed.

Bed Floor: $550
Headboard: $100
Inner boxsides: $400
Outer Boxsides: $500
wheelhousings: $140
tailgate: $500
accessories: $400ish (guestimate)

So i was already in the hole a bit over 2g. This process took multiple long days on the weekends and took over a month to complete. I don't think i would ever do this again unless i could get factory fit parts. The reproduction parts fit together absolutely terrible and require modification to make them fit. I knew this ordering but i thought people were just exaggerating how badly they fit, they weren't...
If i was to do it all over again i would find a bed down south have it shipped up here and repair it. I think i would have been money ahead and most likely time as well.

Overall I am extremely happy with how it came out. It definitely has its flaws but looks good enough to present to others. However my name is attached to it and not many people can say they built a bed out of parts.

My buddy helping me has been working in a body shop for over 10 years. He has been slowly showing me how to do body work and paint. He knew i had messed up the spot welds on my tailgate but that is how you learn by making mistakes. I would not have been able to do this without him, one for the tools/supplies we needed and two for the instances where we needed to make something fit that didn't. If you had the tools and the panels fit together as they should it would be relatively easy.

My word of advice, find a southern bed!

I was going to break down my cost but im feeling a bit lazy. I think i have roughly 4g into the bed. 3g worth of parts including gas tank and lights and about 1g of supplies and paying my buddy.

If you want to watch my restoration, you can follow my instagram: @woody_1216

next project is getting my cab ready but that will have to wait for a bit as my savings took a hit!

 

Amazing work. I need to build a short bed...

 

Great write up. Thanks for sharing.

 

I have been searching every were to see if some one had done this. as my bed is really bad and was trying to decide how much work it would have been to build a new bed out of lmc parts. now I know I'll be finding a bed in the south. Thanks for sharing.

 

I actually found someone on facebook market place who makes short beds for these trucks. I can pass on his info if you are interested. I think the price was around 4g not sure about quality though

 

I was also faced this decided to go with a aluminum bed.

 

Great job and a great learning experience. Would you do my short bed for a 12 pack?

I am thinking about cutting down the floor from LMC. My inner and outer panels can be patched and made to work.

 

Great looking box Kyle! Although I have never built a complete 73-79 box ; I have replaced many different panels over the years on them. I DID build a complete 40-41 ? Ford pickup box a few years ago and yes it is a time consuming deal.You have to recheck measurements more than just a couple of times. Oh,by the way,did you paint the 2 gas doors at the same time to make sure of a paint match? Just curious. Again,good job! gary

 

Unfortunately I didnt not paint the gas doors or the tailgate handle bezel at the same time. Im not entirely worried about the difference in paint. Everything was measured very carefully and I will have to mix up a new batch when we paint the cab.

This isnt going on my truck anytime soon. I want to finish the cab first instead of bolting on the new bed and then unbolting it again to get the cab on. Less times for errors. Might as well wait for the fenders and hood to be done too at that point

 

Forgot to mention this. I didnt paint the gas doors or tailgate bezel because i couldnt get them off my old truck! They are so rusted together the bolts stripped lightly. Going to keep spraying them with oil and hopfully ill be able to get them out. If not, another excuse to go to the junk yard!

 

Ooo...that fresh bed and gate is sexy, and a solid cab is pretty sweet too. $300 doesn't go far when your buying patch panels.

 

I know a guy near me in NY who has all repop panels hanging from the garage wall for 78-9 8' bed. He dies recently, not sure yet what will happen to everything.

 

Wow! That is quite a project!

Looking good!

 

You plan on sharing when you find out? I'm in the Utica/Rome area of upstate NY and have a rust 8' bed. I was thinking of getting a solid OBS bed and swapping on dent side panels.

Jess

 

It may not be long until some enterprising individual or group starts offering completed beds for sale. One can start with a bed as new as '96. The big question is whether there is a market for dent side truck beds at this price point.