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I'm going to be putting my new bed together today and hoping to get some advice before I start.
I have Mid-fifty 's instructions and plan to do it their way.
which is to assemble the bed sides, header & the rear crossmember. Then stand the bed up on the header panel, install the wood & strips, making sure it is square. Then place it on the truck before tightening any bolts.
If the bed is square, would it be ok to tighten all the wood bolts now or should I wait until the bed is on the truck before tightening these.
I dont have a gas tank in the rear so I don't have that to deal with. And it would be so much easier to tighten them with the bed off of the truck.
Probably not strictly necessary but I would do it their way as there is a reason for the order. It's close, but no two trucks are exactly alike. You can tighten up the sheet metal but the bed strip and the main hold-down bolt locations on an old truck might be give or take just a little. If you do it their way you can wiggle the boards and strips around a little and get a nice even gap on everything. It's worth laying on a creeper a half hour under the truck tightening up 67 or so bed bolts.
I did... assemble bed on frame.... level and square it...clamp it in place... then put the boards in with the strips and tighten all from underneath.. Now, given that the truck was up on 30" jack stands and I had adequate room. I did remove the rear gas tank for the bedwood install, I wouldn't torque anything down till a good fit was assured.
I have done it both ways if you bolt it up off the truck you need to check your measurements bolts to holes over and over again and it will be very heavy so fresh paint is in danger I had 4 guys and should have had 5.
4 lifting with one directing and checking yes I got a scratch in the paint
If you can get to all the bed wood bolts from underneath, there's no advantage to installing the wood with the bed off the truck. It adds a ton of weight, as mentioned above, which increases the level of difficulty, not to mention potential for damage, over setting a little bit of sheet metal in place.
I built a cart that is the exact dimensions of the frame so that I can assemble the bed on the cart and have it fit the frame perfectly. The cart also makes a good stand for painting...easy to get inside and out to cover all surfaces. The cart also makes a good storage platform for the bed before it's mounted on the truck. Not expensive to build and really handy especially if you build more than one truck.
I built mine on sawhorses. I didn't realize I needed a jig for one or two trucks. No offense intended but that looks like busywork if you don't have unlimited shop space and more beds to build this month. It's OK to disagree.
I built a cart that is the exact dimensions of the frame so that I can assemble the bed on the cart and have it fit the frame perfectly. The cart also makes a good stand for painting...easy to get inside and out to cover all surfaces. The cart also makes a good storage platform for the bed before it's mounted on the truck. Not expensive to build and really handy especially if you build more than one truck.
It's kind of hard to see all the details, but it looks like you just have 4 uprights to set the front and rear crossmembers on, then you build the bed around that, like a jig? I like that is so open underneath so you can get inside to work and paint.
Took longer than l thought it was going to take, just like every project I do.
I ended up assembling it on the truck since I was going to have to crawl under it anyway to tighten up all the bolts. If I ever have to do this again I'll assemble it off the truck, then crawl under it to tighten the bolts. I spent way to much time crawling around on the concrete floor under the truck the way I did it.
That came out really nice. Starting to look like a finished truck. I hear you on the climbing up and down. I don't mind the creeper time but the up and down constantly part is getting harder.
That came out really nice. Starting to look like a finished truck. I hear you on the climbing up and down. I don't mind the creeper time but the up and down constantly part is getting harder.
It's terrible the way gravity has increased in the last ten years. Isn't it?
