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Was just looking at my newly purchased 72 longbed.
I noticed that the bed looks like its running uphill from the cab to the tailgate.
I don't see any indications of bent frame etc. The bump lines up fine from the front to the gap but the bed seems to head uphill from there.
Just wondering if this could be cab mounts or is something amiss with the frame or bed.
Any suggestions? sorry no full side pic yet but did grab this one for the gab and the space is considerable wider at bottom than top.
Yes they do. Looks like the bed is low or cab is high. This truck has not had any mounts changed best I can tell and the other side doesn't look as bad.
I'm wondering if cab mounts would correct it.
The frame doesn't look to be bent, but that could be deceiving I guess.
I plan on cutting down to a short bed and worry that things will not line up.
Anyway to check things to make sure would be nice to know.
If you are going to remove the bed you may be able to just do a visual inspection to see what is off. Could be that the mounts on the cab are bad or the cross supports on the bed have rusted. Get under the truck and take pictures so you have an idea first.
Thanks for the input fe390pc. I've looked under the bed and doesn't seem to be an issue but I guess once it's off I'll know for sure.
This truck ha a camper shell all it's life so the bed is in very good shape.
I really hope its cab mounts causing it??
Well I can tell you one thing, most guys on here wish their hardware looked half as good as yours. The rubber brakes down over time but the actual metal hardware on yours looks good. I would just take some frame measurements once you get the bed off.
About this time last year I was working on trying to get my truck all lined up. Had similar issues.
You're going to spend a lot of time and effort trying to line it up perfectly. And the reason is, Ford did not build them symmetrically. They didn't care about the body lines lining up.
I shimmed my cab on three corners, completely different amounts. And this is with brand new cab mounts.
I shimmed the Front of the bed up to line it up with the cab.
I haven't gotten around to putting the front fenders on yet, but I can only assume it's going to be another hassle to line up.
Start taking a tape measure and measuring everything. You'll realize the mismatch I'm talking about. Nothing is the same.
Thank you! I can’t Believe how nice the truck is all over so far as rust. Just makes no sense that something could be that far off but i do know sometimes things aren’t what they should have been.
thanks again for the replies. Really appreciate it.
Gotcha. Thanks to all of you. Guess I’ll be shimming as i go!
stay tuned. Once I’m able ill start a build and post some pics.
can’t wait. Been wanting this for some time now.
I made custom spacers for the cab after determining the required amount on the 3 corners. Front passenger has nothing. Driver has this. I think passenger rear was the most at 3/4".
Your body mounts don’t have a standard nut. That’s normal. The visible lower washer is the nut.
what you see as a recess where the threaded end of bolt comes through is actually kind of a reverse tower with threads.
There’s an upper half at the body and a lower half under the frame mount that mushroom together when the bolt is torqued, creating a clamshell around the two rubber insulators.
