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I've been looking at options for repairing my truck bed. I have a 1978 reg cab/short box/4wd. It has rot from a previous insertable bedliner. Donor trucks are difficult to find and often in better shape than my truck. All I want to replace is the bed floor and the braces underneath. getting the right indentions for the bed bolts makes going with a newer donor truck less desirable. I think I'm going to go with a bed floor assembly, but they only produce long beds. I've seen threads on shortening long beds, but my question is, where do I cut down the bed floor assembly? And once I do that, will the braces and bolt holes line up in stock short box position? Any other suggestions would be apprciated, but this seems to be the least amount of cutting/fabrication involved. Not gonna be a show truck, and I plan to do a spray in or paint on bedliner.
If you can find up to a '96 short bed (or I assume a '97 F250 short bed) the insides are the same.
I have a similar issue with my '73 longbed. A PO had it parked under a lean-to along a barn and a big oak dropped a branch thru the barn tin and filled the bed with leaves. Patch panels are nice, but they just have the straight runs, I really need part of the curl that rises up to the wall and part of the front bed wall and the channel underneath.
Right now I have a piece of galvanized tin sheetmetal screwed over the hole.
When you say the "up to 1996 short boxes" are the same, does that mean the bolt holes/indentions will line up?
Interior of beds are the same '73-'96 Ford just changed the exterior quarter panels and tailgate.
According to Tasca Ford the shortbed floor is still available.
Floorpan, styledside w/o dual rear wheels, 6 foot bed
BC3Z-9911215-B
List $840.37 Tasca price $549.60
I have seen that one, but there is no actual picture. Was hoping to confirm the bolt pattern is the same. If I understand, you are saying the interior beds are EXACTLY the same? If so. That's the way I'm going to go. Tasca scared me off a little when the website does not have the option of entering 1978 as a model year.
I have seen that one, but there is no actual picture. Was hoping to confirm the bolt pattern is the same. If I understand, you are saying the interior beds are EXACTLY the same? If so. That's the way I'm going to go. Tasca scared me off a little when the website does not have the option of entering 1978 as a model year.
I KNOW the inner quarters and the headboard are the same, I bought them for my project ('73 F100). I don't have firsthand knowledge on the floor pan but that's what I've heard every time this has been discussed. I've never heard that the floor isn't the same. Should be easy enough to find a '96 or ealier truck and measure it.
Yeah, none of the dealer websites go back that far, that's why I selected 1996 for the year when I looked up the P/N.
Great. I think that's how I'm gonna proceed. is the bed bolted or spot welded to the front? Are the torx bolts the way to go for the mounting hardware?
I just did this if you want to see it , its on my build page in my signature , the rear bolt holes line up pretty good , , the very front towards cab have to be drilled since that the area you cut down for a short bed conversion , the center braces as far as in proper place are ok but the center of bed bolt holes may be off , I laid my donor floor on truck with bed off and lined everything up an marked as needed , , I had to replace a center brace that was rusty and it pretty much was back in place of the old just had to drill center of bolt holes an weld up the rest ,,I didn't have any big issues other than a few welds to grind down after filling holes from drilling an the one brace for centering holes , my donor was off a 92 long bed , here are a couple of pictures were I am finishing up now, more pictures on build link
i'll check out the build thread, but was hoping more to just replace the floor with possibly a newer model floor. But if I were to happen to be able to get a long bed donor it's possible.
i'll check out the build thread, but was hoping more to just replace the floor with possibly a newer model floor. But if I were to happen to be able to get a long bed donor it's possible.
Yes its possible as mine was a short bed 79 , its not all that hard , but many spot welds to drill out , I bought the donor truck as a running truck , and sold it so I only have time in my bed no real money as I made it all back in the way I sold the donor truck
Summit has RH side replacement panels for a long bed for a little over 100.00 plus free shipping. We ordered one, to make a template from for the curve for wheel wells to see how well it matches up before we cut it to length.
Coast to Coast International Body Parts RRP3060 129.99
If a left side never becomes available we will buy another RH and just flip it over and figure out a way to weld them together down the middle. The pattern of the ridges/troughs may not line up exactly correct, so we may have to modify another panel or two as a joint.
It is a flat sheet on the fender side, in other words it doesn't curve up the sides. That is okay on ours as they are not rusted out.
Are cross members are okay too, but we will need a new rear bed sill.
We also thought about buying a new long bed floor, but man are they $$$. We also figured the time required to get a JY bed pulled would be about the same as going this route.
Maybe you could repair/replace your cross members and do something similar with panels like these.
We plan to start on ours in a few weeks, so we'll be posting on the "What have you done today" thread.
Summit has RH side replacement panels for a long bed for a little over 100.00 plus free shipping. We ordered one, to make a template from for the curve for wheel wells to see how well it matches up before we cut it to length.
Coast to Coast International Body Parts RRP3060 129.99
If a left side never becomes available we will buy another RH and just flip it over and figure out a way to weld them together down the middle. The pattern of the ridges/troughs may not line up exactly correct, so we may have to modify another panel or two as a joint.
It is a flat sheet on the fender side, in other words it doesn't curve up the sides. That is okay on ours as they are not rusted out.
Are cross members are okay too, but we will need a new rear bed sill.
We also thought about buying a new long bed floor, but man are they $$$. We also figured the time required to get a JY bed pulled would be about the same as going this route.
Maybe you could repair/replace your cross members and do something similar with panels like these.
We plan to start on ours in a few weeks, so we'll be posting on the "What have you done today" thread.
The wheel area does not need replaced in most cases , as the center of the floor is a seperate piece from the side with the wheel wells, the center of floor is around 4' wide , to do properly you drill out the spot welds from underneath at the seam as center of floor is a seperate piece ,,I thought about using those panels but unless it has the seal between the sides of floor with wheel well it will be a much harder task to do the job , plus the areas for the bolts have a area in floor that is recessed for the bolt , as with those panels I don't see it in picture and you could end up with a bed bolt close or in a ridge area , so I decided it would be easier to just do a swap and make it look more factory style
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