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I have a 1964 long bed I am getting back to. The bed has serious rust and in my mind is unsalvagable. I'm figuring the wheel tubs and the side flat pieces are good, but the ribbed bed itself is shot. I thought I would cut that out and weld in a new bed pan but I looked around and have not found a replacement panel. So now I am looking at options. Maybe a piece of flat steel and weld it in? Diamond plate?? Or???. The wood thing doesn't really appeal to me but as an absolute last resort.....
I'm sure some of you guys must have run into this, little help..
I had the same problem with my '64 short bed. I ended up cutting out all the rusted portion of the bed. I will treat the rest of the bed for the rust on it and the have some 3/16" diamond tread plate steel sheared to fit. This what mine looks like now.
Doug,
Thanks for the reply. The picture is very helpful. I did not realize that there was a little "ledge" to be able to land a piece of flat steel or diamon plate on. Your picture shows that well.
If you could, can you give ne a brief description of what you did and how you did it to get it to the point you are at?
Thanks again, and great work,
Ken
Hi Ken, I am cutting out the floor of my 62 longbed... I purchased a new floor panel from Evolutionary Rides in FL. https://evolutionaryrides.com Their website is not really up and running but you can find them on facebook through that link...
Joey Montague is the owner and a good guy. His # is 352-835-1355. It is not the cheapest way to go but the ribs are a correct match for the original. In order to get the existing floor out you have to drill out the 3 million spot welds.... At least it seems like 3 million. It is probably more like 200 but you get the idea.... I have the new panel and hope to get to drilling soon. Good luck whichever way you go.
Hey Ken, I have a thread on here, '64 F100 460 engine swap with C4 IFS, that has quite a few pictures of all the cutting I had to do on my bed if you want to look through those first. Mine was pretty bad right down through the middle of it. There was also a few layers of thin sheet metal screwed down to cover the rust holes. My build is a little different in that I want the rear portion of the bed to be able to hinge and open up to allow access to my rear mounted (under the bed) fuel tank. My bed will be two pieces. The front will be bolted in and the rear will hinge with electric actuators to lift it.
Doug
Doug,
Thanks for the help. I think I've got it now. Search for the spot welds (any tips?) drill them out and go from there.
I looked through your entire build pics, very impressive. You are a master problem solver and fabricator that has vision.
Stay out of the heat, we are expected to hit 114 in my neck of the central valley.....
I am using this Blair spot weld cutter kit... Anyone have another suggestion? I did the floor pans on my 62 with this and it worked well but I have nothing to compare it to...
Hey Ken the easiest way I found to locate the spot welds was to run a angle grinder with a sanding disk lightly over the recessed parts of the bed where the cross braces are. The depressed dots of paint (or rust) are the spot welds. I used the same spot weld cutter as shown in the last post and it worked like a champ. It seemed like there are a million of them but the number is probably closer to a couple hundred. It is long tedious work but worth the effort. What part of the central valley are you in? I'm in Lodi, CA.
Doug
Thanks for all the replies;
Pantera - price is right if only it was closer.....
7Berc - On order. Thanks for the lead.
Doug - Thanks for the tip on finding the welds. Vacaville or as we call it, Vacatucky.....................
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