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Next project is to install the bed wood and stainless steel strips. What type of bolts are being used to anchor the bed to the frame? Specifically, the center four that pass through the wood and the two front bolts that pass through the strips. Only type I have seen online are either philips head or square head for the center four and nothing that listed for the front two that pass through the strips.
I did my bed wood a couple weeks ago. Instead of using bolts that go through the wood to the frame, I chose to simply use 3/8x1.5" hex head bolts fished through the cross braces directly onto the frame and the same with the bolts at the front and back cross braces. That way I avoided the need to rout out the wood to countersink the bolt and washer for the four bolts that some folks choose to expose.
If you really want to have these four bolts run through the bed wood, I'd just use carriage bolts.
Unless you're going to completely assemble the bed and then put it on the frame as one assembly, there's really not a need to go through the bed wood with those four bolts. I didn't have that option as I have relocated the gas tank to the back of the frame and have the fill tube in the bed floor. I installed the cross braces, bolted up the bed sides and front, then started working my way across with the wood. An added benefit was that there was no heavy lifting and little danger of me bouncing the bed off the cab too many times... Here are some pics of my installation:
Since my stainless steel strips don't have the round hole for the front bed anchor bolts, I can easily modify that crossmember to bolt from the bottom. But, the wood I have already has the holes in it for the center four bend mounting bolts.
On another note, I thought the bad anchor bolts were supposed to be larger than 3/8" diameter. Something like 7/16" or 1/2" diameter? At least the bolt holes seem to be sized for larger bolts.
I got my bed kit from Midwest Early Ford, and there were no pre-drilled holes in the wood. If your wood already has the holes, I'd just use 6 identical 3.5" bolts where it attaches to the frame through the wood. I chose to use Phillips pan head bolts where I had to tighten from the top because the heads look similar to the carriage bolts that hold down the strips. In your case, you'd probably want to use a flat head allen/square/phillips machine screw that matches whatever washers work with your pre-countersunk holes.
As far as bolt thickness, I figure 3/8 is plenty. 3/8 Grade 5 bolts provide over 9,000lbs of tensile strength/8,000lbs shear strength. There may be room for a bigger bolt, but 3/8 allows you more room to adjust to get the bed perfectly square (and in my case, they were easy to fish through the crossmembers). The bed to frame bolts sold by DC/Early Ford/etc. are going to be 7/16"x3.5"
The wood for the bed I have came predrilled for the four center anchor bolts and special washers. No predrilled bolt holes for the front two anchor bolts. Maybe I am wrong, but, to me it seems the front two bed anchor bolts go through the stainless steel strips. My original front crossmember looks just like the one below. The two bed anchor bolt holes are inline with two bolt holes for the stainless steel strips. Mid-Fifty also sells a small rectangular reinforcement plate to fit below the stainless steel strip at each front anchor bolt to prevent the anchor bolt from dimpling the stainless steel strip.
The pictures absolutely show that those two frame bolts go through the metal strips. I have not seen that before. My original front cross member had those welded-on bolt guides, but they position the frame bolt in the middle of the wood strip as in the picture Ross posted. I know I'm comparing a 52 to a 56, but I thought there was little change in this stuff.
So, you would want a 3.5" bolt with a head that would not stick up above the sides of the metal strips (pan head, flat head, or similar). Seems to me that a flat washer would work just as good as one of those rectangular strips.
The idea of the flat piece is that it bottoms on the top of the crossmember, preventing the strip from being pulled down further to the top of the guide tube. If you used enough washers of the right thickness, that would work.
I suspect the wood kit is sold without the holes for the front so it can be used with either style of bed.
The idea of the flat piece is that it bottoms on the top of the crossmember, preventing the strip from being pulled down further to the top of the guide tube. If you used enough washers of the right thickness, that would work.
I suspect the wood kit is sold without the holes for the front so it can be used with either style of bed.
Using washers (or a spacer) to fill the gap between the bed strip and crossmember is a good idea. When the bolt is tightened it bears down against the crossmember instead of deforming the bed strip. Thanks.
I'd like to use button head stainless steel bolts to anchor the bed to the frame. Does anybody here know the original bolt diameter, 3/8", 7/16", 1/2"? All the holes seem sized for either 7/16" with some clearance or 1/2" with minimal clearance.
