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So a couple days or so ago I pulled some bolts and removed the 1.5 x 1.5 steel angle from the front lip of my bed on my '77, and it had a couple hooks on it for super tie downs, it also covered the front wall of the 30 year old drop in under lip bed liner. I was pleasantly surprised that the sides looked might near like new, but there was some rust on the floor. The OEM floor was rusted across the front at lowest part behind the cab in 1986, so I had wire brushed it, primed and painted it with a gallon of enamel, then had cut a new floor from 3/32" steel sheet that was 5 foot wide, 10 foot long. On both sides where passes the fenders, I had trimmed it out 6 inches each side to fit "close", the steel overlapped the inner bed sides 6" and all around it I bolted the steel sheet to the galvanized bed side inners every 6" with 5/16" carriage bolts using a fender washer underneath and of course, nuts and lock washers. Beside the fender well humps where it narrowed, I had continued the pattern but there it's bolted to non galvanized center floor. I put it in to stay. I also had cut a sheet and had a lip 3" wide bent to meet this new floor across the front, that sheet is in two parts to make fitting easier then, then I fastened it to the OEM front wall every 6" across near top, and welded it at the bottom to the floor sheet, then welded it vertcally up the center joining the two, it's a really nice tight fit on the left and rtight. The OEM floor is still there under this sheet and looking up from underneath, is as sound as it was in 1986. I also had bolted the rear of this sheet across the bed width every 6" using 5/16" bolts, but they are hex heads and I see I spot welded those heads to the sheet so I could tighten them from below. I recall having a gallon of old blue paint that I poured into the bed then and rolling it out before topping with white. Wasn't long before I put the bed liner in.
I never measured or marked the OEM eight bed bolts, they are all under the sheet steel. Part of me says don't worry about them now. I could measure and locate them and use a hole saw to open the sheet above them, or just mark them if ever thier location is needed.
Yesterday, I picked up some cup brushes and Rustoleum bed line spray at HF, and I have a gallon can of thier Iron Armor bedliner I suspect is the same., I'm thinking I'm gonna fix a couple holes, but leave any at the front part open (drain) and clean it up good, then use the Rustoleum as I make progress to protect my work, then gonna top coat again with the Iron Armor. I also am gonna look at using a long angle piece to weld across the rear edge to the sheet, then weld the other edge to that 4" wide x 1/4" steel piece connecting bed side upright braces at the tail gate opening.
Pendaliner still sells the drop in liners in both over lip and under lip versions too, my old one has a few cracks and tears in it, but held water when truck was parked on a downward slope.
As long as the bed sides present well and the tail gate can mate the actual floor isn't of great consequence as long as it has solid mounting points is all that's necessary especially if it's going to be covered with a mat or liner. These days having that much and you're better off then 80% of the OEM beds out there. Cover it with a camper shell and it will definitely see you thru your life that's for sure.
Funny how we look at things. We develope habits for it. When I first bought the truck, with the rusty OEM bed floor front (it's not the worse I've seen) ... I did the steel plate to get it good for a few years. It was that same day my neighbor came over and we got into a conversation, he wanted to replace his under lip with a new over the rail type bed liner in his 'mid '80s Ford pickup to then put a shell on it, he looking at the over lip top to act as a gasket like. He offered me the under lip liner for about half price, I took it. My hope was just get 10 years out of it. That was over 30 years ago. Now like today, I catch myself thinking 10 more years. He lives near me still, though we've both moved.
In 1981 I transferred here from another part of the state. Not long after that I worked a hit and run at a farmer's farm where a pickup run out of the road and through a fence, broke a couple posts, left red paint ... and a license plate. I ran the tag, found where the boy worked, drove to the dealership, there was my red pickup with heavy duty steel well pipe front bumper and no front tag. I saw it later that day after he got off work and stopped him, asked where the front tag was ... he said it fell off then he asked how I knew it was missing. I invited him to my car where his front tag was laying in the passenger floor. It also had some mecghanic's wire where it had been tied to the front bumper. He just shook his head and started appologising. I wrote him two cites, one for the propert damage hit & run, one for reckless driving running out of the road. Came to court, farmer had told me the boy and his brother had built a whole new fence. Judge dismissed the hit & run and reduced the other to Improper driving, half points and only court costs. That boy and I have been friends since.
That boy has had a bunch of these trucks, he does tractors now, has his own boys who have boys. I had almost sold him this truck but he encouraged me to keep it. I saw him uptown this afternoon, we got to talking, he said basicaly what you did ... but he suggested folding a tarp double and putting it in the bed then putting the bed liner in it. I never heard of that.
After my post above, I did wire brush for three hours, wore out two new wire cup brushes and worked on a third, then sweeping it, then vacuuming, then went through three cans of the Rustoleum but needed a 4th, so went for the 4th can at HF, then is when I run into him. I got it all covered in one decent coat, 4 cans, but I'm still gonna think through repairs ... and if they are even needed, then use that gallon on top of it, then a bed liner goes back in. The sides are well braced, the TG shuts perfectly, and even when open the sides are rock steady. I think I'll pass on the tarp idea. .
I did crawl under it, most of the ribbed floor is still there, just the holes that were there when I bought the truck which weren't too bad (well, not huge anyway, like maybe a couple inches wide) ... and it is stronger now. Yeah, at 67 it'll outlast me, this bed will haul anything I'll throw at it from here out. Cross members look as good as those under my '07. There are places the factory undercoat has peeled loose and the metal under it is like new. Found there's a bit of sand in the front crossmember, must be some old dirt, no idea how it got in there. My old drop in bed liner is a "Pro-Tecta" Liner, It has a couple dimples that might be piercing, I think I'm gonna try a plastic weld like fix if they do pierce, they are in the right front corner a few inches above the floor. More I think on it, more I lean to keeping it (the old bed liner). I know, a lot of writing .. but it aids the thought processes.
Funny how we look at things. We develope habits for it. When I first bought the truck, with the rusty OEM bed floor front (it's not the worse I've seen) ... I did the steel plate to get it good for a few years. It was that same day my neighbor came over and we got into a conversation, he wanted to replace his under lip with a new over the rail type bed liner in his 'mid '80s Ford pickup to then put a shell on it, he looking at the over lip top to act as a gasket like. He offered me the under lip liner for about half price, I took it. My hope was just get 10 years out of it. That was over 30 years ago. Now like today, I catch myself thinking 10 more years. He lives near me still, though we've both moved.
In 1981 I transferred here from another part of the state. Not long after that I worked a hit and run at a farmer's farm where a pickup run out of the road and through a fence, broke a couple posts, left red paint ... and a license plate. I ran the tag, found where the boy worked, drove to the dealership, there was my red pickup with heavy duty steel well pipe front bumper and no front tag. I saw it later that day after he got off work and stopped him, asked where the front tag was ... he said it fell off then he asked how I knew it was missing. I invited him to my car where his front tag was laying in the passenger floor. It also had some mecghanic's wire where it had been tied to the front bumper. He just shook his head and started appologising. I wrote him two cites, one for the propert damage hit & run, one for reckless driving running out of the road. Came to court, farmer had told me the boy and his brother had built a whole new fence. Judge dismissed the hit & run and reduced the other to Improper driving, half points and only court costs. That boy and I have been friends since.
That boy has had a bunch of these trucks, he does tractors now, has his own boys who have boys. I had almost sold him this truck but he encouraged me to keep it. I saw him uptown this afternoon, we got to talking, he said basicaly what you did ... but he suggested folding a tarp double and putting it in the bed then putting the bed liner in it. I never heard of that.
After my post above, I did wire brush for three hours, wore out two new wire cup brushes and worked on a third, then sweeping it, then vacuuming, then went through three cans of the Rustoleum but needed a 4th, so went for the 4th can at HF, then is when I run into him. I got it all covered in one decent coat, 4 cans, but I'm still gonna think through repairs ... and if they are even needed, then use that gallon on top of it, then a bed liner goes back in. The sides are well braced, the TG shuts perfectly, and even when open the sides are rock steady. I think I'll pass on the tarp idea. .
I did crawl under it, most of the ribbed floor is still there, just the holes that were there when I bought the truck which weren't too bad ... and it is stronger now. Yeah, at 67 it'll outlast me, this bed will haul anything I'll throw at it from here out. Cross members look as good as those under my '07. I know, a lot of writing .. but it aids the thought processes.
Part of the problem with the world we live in today nobody has time to listen any more . All communication now is geared towards stopping communication with "whaaaht-evvverr" this and "whaaaht-evvvverr" that. LOL
In the men's council meetings in my tribe we talk in a circle starting with eldest elder down to the young bucks last. It's always been that way and it teaches the younger ones how to listen to those who have the most life experience and hopefully wisdom. When there is no longer value inf our elder's voices then it's pretty much over for us humans. So no worries on to many words It's your turn to talk Old Timer
'73 is different from '74-'96? I thought '73 was same? In the pic of the grey bed, I see some odd ball ripples in some ribs and I think I see them in the red bed too. I haven't seen my bed from above in over 30 years, maybe standard but I long ago forgot them if so.
I too like the drop ins, yesterday I noticed that I had cut a couple nice drain holes in that new steel I added way back then, at the front in that floor next to the front wall, over to the side corners. Looked odd, I found I had added a 3/4" copper pipe section in them I had forgotten, They are still crisp and so they must have worked. They exit ahead of the cross member below them. I recall that my '07 has drain holes created by FORD in manufacture, but looking from below, I have yet to find evidence of any FORD installed drain holes in my '77's bed.
Maybe so many stories of rust under old drop in bed liners was in part due to folk using a drop in bed liner to hide already there rust damage resulting from no drains. My old '72 stepside Chevy had no rust at all in the bed ... ever ... but it was oak boards ... with gaps. Water never gathered in it. My '70 Chevy LB had a shell on it, This '77 had rust in it in 1986 from sitting in weather, any holes were rust. I added some drain holes when I plated it in '86, threw a bit of paint in, put the bed liner over top and as I said ... pleasantly surprised recently when pulling the liner out. There was a couple years I had a bed shell; on it for hauling my tools buil;ding my home and some camping we did, but that "post rust" bed shell has been gone from here since the '90s.
I'm thinking of ways to eliminate mouse homes, was in the '90s I sourced some seats out of a '86 Mercury Grand Marquis ... 50/50 red leather with center arm rests, made tracks too, because my stock bench seat went flat on the left and tilted me into the door. I found much of the missing insulation last week behind, on top of the gauge cluster while replacing a couple lights. Then a few days ago, when removing the drop in, I found the rest of it packed in the bed in a "pocket" that is formed between the steel and bedliner at the ends of the fender well bumps. Explains why that seat suddenly fell off on the end. I still have never figured how they got from in cab to in the bed all those years ago, maybe through a vent? I had the speedo out ion '86 so I know there was no mouse home on it then. My Mercury seats are not missing any fluff that I can tell.
In my '07 flareside , it has a Line-X that was done really nice, and a bed cover, but Line-X isn't so crawl friendly so I took a thrown away SB drop in, sawed the sides off keepinf the whole floor and front wall and the two side walls just beside the wheel wells and it fit perfect in my '07 Flareside. I took another LB drop in and sawed the sides off just keeping a 4 foot wide center and front wall, sawed in bottom of grooves, put it in my 4x8 utility trailer (has 2" high angle iron around a diamond plate solid steel sheet floor on top of the 3" tall 1/4" thick channel frame, it's heavy enough but want to preserve the floor) and used a propane torch to heat and bend the front wall over the front rail to shed water, park that trailer nose high, rain rolls out the back. I have another bed liner floor I cut the sides off a LB liner, even cut off front wall, just to lay on if the ground is wet, etc. I had visited a shop and the owner had them all piled up in a field, I inquired, he said was gonna burn them that evening, but if I was to haul them away before ... well, no fire and he'd go eat supper on time. I was delivering parts but I had driven my '77 to work that day. I think he ate supper on time.
I see my neighbor pulled his drop in out of his Dakota, I might inquire. I know it's short, not wide enough to help me but they are good "cover".
When I worked in a body shop I seaw both cases with bedliners. Trucks that looked almost new underneath with some minor scuffing and trucks that were rotted out from trapped debris holding moisture and road salt. I always wondered why some stayed good while others didn't. We usually recommended a spray on bedliner if someone asked about liners. We used a product from Wurth called SKS chip guard, i think. It was flat black, but was paintable if you wanted to put body color over it.
My '77 had a lot of rot in the front of the bed in 1986, the truck had been recently repainted too, no bed liner had "then" ever been in it but the original owner had gotten ill and the truck sat for a couple years with leaves, etc in it. A police officer who dabbled in turning over cars bought it and had it painted to sell on his lot but the bed still had some rot across the front at the base of the front wall, they just wire brushed and painted it. Truck was then just 9 years old ... with just 35,xxx miles.
I've been under it several times today, added a few carefully placed carriage bolts, measuring my bed liner, trying to think of ways to keep it dry but no matter, water will get in behind the drop in liner I think ... so I focused on drains. I also examined my bed liner using sun light to pin point any holes, just two pin point ones and a tear about 2" long at the base of a fender hump. Tomorrow I'm gonna roll that Iron Armor from HF (bought on a sale 4+ years ago) in there, likely just use most of the gallon, if any is left over I'll try to save it in a glass jar for my trailer's floor. Let it cure, then put the drop in back in.
A good number of years ago I pulled all the carpet and the lining under it out of the cab after finding some rust, I made some new floors to fit over my holed OEM floors from sheet steel and even rolled them up to fit pretty near perfect, then I painted them and for years just used a rubber mat over them. Then along about 2017 ... I wire brushed and coated my floors inside with a rolled on bed liner product, it's tough. I think maybe Duplicolor made it. I added some pieces underneath cut from old discarded highway signs, it's 1/8" aluminum. I fitted them under the OEM floors attached on both sides and across the front using long stainless steel counter sink screws and those stainless steel cupped washers as I used some 2'x2' carpeted rubber backed industrial floor squares inside, cut and fitted. I left the rear of the aluminum at a slight downward opening as they are just baffles to keep snow, slush, etc off my cab's floor bottoms. They helped with noise too.
Updated 10-02-21: After "sleeping on it", I decided it's enough. I had twenty two 5/16" carriage bolts around that steel, yesterday I added nine- 3/8" carriage bolts after finding a box in my "stuff", the 9 added are not at the edges into inner bed sides, they are through the steel and the OEM ribbed floor beneath it towards the center, some dead on center, all are placed to be between ribs in the drop in bed liner that is going back in. Imagine my surprise when going under the truck to put washers & nuts on I found the ones I intended to be centered were in fact perfectly centerd in the center ribe of the OEM floor, I mean dead center! Guess "measure twice, drill once" works. For carriage bolts, I drill a slightly bigger hole so the square shank gets pulled into the round hole as the nut tightens , making it round with 4 notches hole that grips. I had sprayed a total of four cans of Rustoleum bed liner in to protect my work, but this morning I got after it rolling the gallon of Harbor Freight Iron Armor on top of the other, the sun was out, it was clear, low humidity ... but that black steel was hot. I used up 5 rollers, the IA is so sticky and just tears the rollers off the holder, I think the IA was near cure at the front when I finished doing the bed floor and 2 or 3 inches up the sides. I was putting it on heavy, pourong it into bed and trying to roll it out. I finished, maybe a little over a quart left in the gallon can. I saw I bought it in 2017, so we went to run some errands and then when I get home, I used a 4" bristle brush to use up that left over, it was cooler out, it worked much easier, less mess, and the stuff didn't harden so fast. I concentrated on seams between metal pieces and "drain" hole edges too, the gallon is all in the bed now, curing. That IA was thick enough, even plugged a few small holes. I really put it on thick at seams where water might collect. Monday, the drop in bedliner will go back in, pin holes be damned. (I did in fact put it back in, but then took it back out until all is done)
I now have total 33 bolts (some 5/16, some 3/8", most are carriage bolts) both around and towards the center securing the sheet steel to the floor and inner bed sides, the front wall is plated too but is welded to the floor steel and has a line of 1/4" short bolts fastening it to the bed's front wall under the top recess lip. I have a total of 16 drilleddrain holes around the bed inner side, ranging from smallest of 1/2" to as large as 3/4" in the single wall of the inner bed sides as they just start curving upwards from the floor (so no places to welcome water between the oem and the added steel floor). That IA that I had in the plastic roller tray was easily pulled loose, it's tough.
Last edited by tbear853; Oct 2, 2021 at 07:12 PM.
Reason: rmor
Today ... I pulled the rear home mede rear step bumper off my '77 in yet another step before the make-over-repaint and that thing is heavy, I'm not afraid to bet it weighs 100 pounds or more ... easily, it's 8" tall, 2" wide @ top and bottom "lips", 1/4" steel (I thought was maybe 3/16" but I measured it, it'was a full 1/4" thick), two 3/8" bracket or mount plates, recessed tag "pocket" too, and 3/16" thick 6" wide diamond plate top "step" surface. I want to make a couple minor changes and then wire brush, sand and paint it before reinstalling it once the truck body is done.
Temporarily, I mounted my tag under the tailgate on the rear of that face (I was thinking of just bolting the tag to my old tailgate over top of "O" & "R" since it'll be scrap soon) ... and then I used a 42" long piece of heavy scrap to go across the OEM bumper mounts (from when truck had a chrome rear bumper) ... bolted it in place, not welded, and i painted it a orange-ish red color to both protect the rear some and to draw one's attention so they (or I) don't forget or miss it's being there when walking or working near by. It'll also serve as a step until I get the bumper back in place, the center rests on top of my receiver so it's not gonna bend when/if stepped on either. It was something I made for a tractor long ago, it is two 1.5" x 1/4" angles welded to form a channel ... turned downward to not catch rain.
Now ... just waiting on my painter buddy to say "bring it over" now. Bed is done, that HF Iron Armor gallon bed liner is cured, seems very tough. I've decided that I might even buy another gallon for some other odds and ends both truck related and "other" related, works good on wood too. Those drain holes I added along the sides in lower portions really work, I even stood in rain to watch them. I'm gonna reuse my old drop in liner, it cleaned up pretty nice .... and besides .... if I bought a new one, I'd likely be overly picky as to what I hauled in it.
Updated 10-12-2021: I've been checking out that Harbor Freight Iron Armor bed liner that I rolled / brushed in my bed near two weeks ago now ... and that stuff is cured and really tough, surpasses all my expectations. I've walked on it, worked on it, slid my tools and a spare tire on it, and so far no damage. We've had some rains, those dozen plus drain holes I added worked great. No water pooled in the bed. I looked on the gallon can, I seen I had dated it, I bought that can in early 2017 ... and it was still very useable, not at all hard when I opened the can. I was "recovering" then and didn't get to use it then. I tried it on some wooden ramps I built, some other things, it's great. So today, we had some errands and I went by HF and bought another gallon. I'm gonna use about half of it on my utility trailer's diamond plate floor (under the drop in that's there now) ... maybe the step part of the bumper I'm working on too, ... and put half of it in two quart glass jars (Ball Mason jars) and keep them in the dark, sealed up but ready for little jobs. I know that if stored in that gallon tin can with the pressed on lid and mess in the groove half full of air, I'll just regret it.
He lives near me still, though we've both moved.
