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Getting ready to put the rear body back on my truck. I have seen these trucks with thin wood isolators, or nothing at all.
Looking through my Ford service manuals, it doesn't appear they came that way from the factory.
None of the rear body bolt kits I've seen have pads of any kind.
I'm thinking about 1/4" neoprene spacers, just to prevent squeaks.
Anyone done this on their slick?
If so, did it reduce squeaks/rattles?
Not sure how thin you are talking. Mine all have substantial chunks of wood but since they sit up inside of the channels of the bed cross supports they don't seem very tall and some trucks came without them if they didn't need them. Here's the MPC drawing of the newer styleside bed with the blocks of wood circled.
Here's pics of one of my 4x4 trucks with the wooden blocks still installed. All of my trucks still have there's. Lots of guys cut their own replacement blocks of wood. Oak is a decent choice. But, if the cab and bed sit good with respect to each other with no shims and your truck originally had none then you should be fine.
The wooden blocks were not a service part number, they were an improvised item if they needed replaced.
All of the lwb stylesides I have seen had them. My shorty doesn't; Chad once said some shorties did, some didn't. I had a set made by a cabinet-maker friend for my CS. He made five, so I have an extra here somewhere..
Eric
We had some people reply with short bed and some had the blocks and some sat on the metal plates. It wasn't me saying anything, just a thread I was involved in.
Short beds do look a little different underneath than the long beds I've seen.
Dixie, my 66 LWB Styleside had the oak blocks in the channels over the frame. Most of them were not really sized exactly tall enough to act as "supports" for the crossmembers and when I made new ones, I made them the same size. Unlike the block shown above by TA455HO, they sit flush to the crossmember channel. However, to your question about squeeks, I did glue heavy felt sheet to the frame wherever it would be contacted by a crossmember. I don't know how long they will last, but I have no creaks, squeeks or rattles. They all do not touch the same, as the bed is shimmed for best alignment with the cab. You could do the same with reinforced rubber sheet and, I assume after time anything that is squeezed between the metal frame and the bed, will disintegrate eventually.
Ok. When i bough this particular truck, the bed and cab were unbolted, and just sitting in the frame. No fasteners or mounts left.
My 1965 has a couple of wood blocks, but I didn't know if they were factory, or "Farm Tech" repairs.
I'll cut pressure treated woid blocks, about 1/8" taller than the channel depth. That will give me some "Crush" room for bolt tightening.
Thanks for the responses guys, as always, plenty of knowledge here to tap into!
Mine have thin metal plates with a thin rubber layer (like inner tube tire rubber) between the plate and the frame that "I'm told" were used to level the bed to match the bed lines on the cab lines. This is the underside of my '64 Styleside short bed. You can see the thin sheet of rubber still stuck to the rear mounts on the first picture.
Doug
rdixiemiller,
It was quite the process getting the bed off the truck. Hours of trying to wire brush the threads of the bolts, soaking them with penetrating oil, busted a few knuckles and finally said forget this and used a cutoff wheel. I should have done that in the first place since I'm using new bolts to put it back on with, duh! Now to clean all that up, treat it and paint it after cutting the floor of the bed out completely. I'm replacing the floor with 1/4" diamond plate steel.
Doug
TA455HO,
Do you or any of the Ford gurus on this forum have the MPC drawing of the "wrongbed" SWB styleside bed similar to the newer bed listed in your post? It would come in handy as I plan my rebuild of my signature truck. As I understand it, that older style bed spanned several years from the late 50's to 63?
Thanks!
Carolina Classics has some rubber spacers that I just got. I jacked up the bed and put them in and it seamed that everything was lining up so I plan on using them so I quit scratching my painted frame while I'm working on the new floor.
