Gave up looking for a bed for the 2007 F350. I am buying wood to replace it with a wood platform. Is anywhere here any detailed instructions on removing the bed and maybe ideas for wood platforms/beds?

 

Mainly bumper, lights, gas tank....potential issues. I'll have to grind off bolts; most are not holding anything, all rusted top and bottom.

 

You'll unplug the lights or remove, pull your bolts, unbolt the gas fill tube. Lift bed off. No need to remove bumper if you don't want to.

 

Yeah, leave the bumper. The gas filler neck you'll make a right angle bracket to bolt to the underside of the wood flat bed and have a big hole for the neck to fit thru, and the 3 holes for the bolts to secure the neck to the back of the plate. For the lights You can turn your sideways redneck style and zip tie to the bumper, get a set of jeep style lights with the reverse lens, or do round or ovals in metal plates, they also make them in surface mounts. Lots of options for the lights. Put some led clearance lights on the bed sides and wire to the marker circuit.

You'll want rails that go the width of the cab. I'd suggest doing 4x4's for these. step 1 though is to take a 2x4 or a 4x4 and shim it up at the arch above the axle (the highest frame point). Then using the board front to back, level and measure the distances from the board to the frame at each bed mounting hole. This will let you make spacers from the frame to the side to side rails. Maybe this gives you an idea of what I mean:

Here I was using the near correct size box steel, which I'll be darned if I can find those measurements again. Put a 1/2" hole thru your spacers and measure the frame to determine the distance between rail mounting holes so you can put those in them. Bolt your rails and spacers down using 1/2" carriage bolts so when you draw em tight the head disappears into the wood and the surface is flat. So once your rails are now "level" you can begin decking it out and make a box frame around the entire thing using the rails for screw points for the side trim boards. Add some d-rings and stake pockets, maybe make some 12 or 18" tall bed sides. Get creative. Be sure to exterior grade poly the wood, and while still wet toss dry play sand across the poly to make it slip resistant. Or spray it with Raptor. Absolutely be sure to seal the BOTTOM of the boards against the elements, your going to wing rocks, stones, but especially mud and road water up onto the wood and that is where it's going to rot, especially if you live where they salt the roads.

 

Thank you. I'll leave the bumper on. Didn't look yet, how are the wires routed from stop lights upfront or are they going down to trailer connector and than along the chassis? Also, since I'll be doing this on my own, I guess I should get the tailgate off first to get the weight to some manageable level. I am trying to have everything figured out and all the materials in my garage so I cut the time of doing this to a minimum, just in case I'll need to go somewhere and weather won't allow a motorcycle ride. So it looks like if I get the lights on the bumper, box off and make a support for the has tank fill, I can still drive it for an emergency.

 

Don't waste time with the bed bolts if you fully plan to do the wood bed, just go in the bed with a angle grinder with a cutoff wheel and cut/grind the heads off. WAYYYYYYY easier and a new set of bed bolts if you were to put a steel bed back is like $60 and alot less butt ache. You can have the bed free in about 10-15 minutes.

The lights, remove them from the pillars, twist out the bulbs from the housing and carefully fish them down the bed columns to the floor. Your correct, a stalk comes to the back, it tees to the 2 corners and to the trailer plug. The harness goes thru the bed sheet metal over to the pass side so you'll have to get under and fish that back thru there, lots of room to do this, you'll have to pull a few plastic retainer clips off too, you want to get everything free and clear of attachment to the bed.

The gas filler is just 3 little bolts right around the cap, open the door and remove the cap and you'll see them, the gas neck should be free at that point.

With a friend pick up each corner and verify everything is unattached before you go for broke and lift it off. 4 people would make real easy work as you need to lift it about 12-15 inches to get the bed up and over the tires, or 2 people can just grab a side and flop it over on its side off the truck if you couldn't give a darn about it.

put the pass wiring back across and tywrap it to the frame, then re-install your lights in the housings and tywrap your stock taillights to the bumper. Use a ratchet strap to noose and pull the fuel filler back a bit to the frame. Its now driveable in a pinch. Don't do stone roads, rocks will be whiping everywhere with no bed or mud flaps off the tires.

 

nydiver or anybody else, do you happen to know the size/diameter/thread of the bolts holding down the bed and if frame is threaded or they used washers and nuts?
Thank you.
On a parallel issue, this internet forums must be the second greatest invention after the invention of the wheel.

 

Don't quote me, but I think they're m14x2.0, at least someone said they used such a tap to clean up the mounting nuts before. So its bolts thru the bed down into the frame where there are clip nuts they go into. Usually its VERY hard to get the bolts back out cleanly, the torx strips out or it breaks the tool. Truly the easiest way is to just cut the heads right off, remove the bed, bend the clips on the nuts and pull out the remaining bolt. If your not concerned about being stock, then you can use washers and normal nuts down below, the one behind the gas tank will be a little fun, maybe find some 1/2"-13 clip nuts and do it that way.

 

Thank you!

 

i have a complete dually long bed sitting here with tailgate I’ll sell you. No dually fenders though. It needs to be painted but it’s not rusted. California bed. Not sure what it would cost to get it shipped. $550 for bed and tailgate. Hell $500 since you’re a member.

 

Thank you 2001F350...Wheel. I don't have a dually, I don't have a shop, I do it all on my driveway and where I am we have 4 seasons, I'll be 70 really soon and I am doing it all by myself. Staining wood I get from across the street and putting it all together is much easier and cheaper than hauling something from 2500 miles away and pay somebody to paint it and install it. You shouldn't have any problems selling it; I've seen prices between 4 and 6 thousands from Wisconsin all the way to East Coast.

 

Yeah finding a nice, rust free, ding free or minor dinged bed and tailgate here in the rustbelt at a price you can stomach is not easy. Like you stated, I can get one, scratches, maybe a few tiny dings, today, but that is going to be 3500-4000+. If your budget is 1500-2k you'll likely find one that looks nice, but you're doing the bed rails and likely the wheel arches. Below 1500 is a complete and utter crap shoot, the rails are definitely going to be gone, it likely has holes in the bed floor, and its going to be dented fr=om an accident

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That white truck, the header panel was separated from the floor and about 1-2" was missing of the floor there, (3) 4" holes in the floor from the bedliner, and the rails were all gone along with the tail/lip section. I had over 10 people contact me on a listing at 900, it ended up selling for 1100, in that condition, with a horrible ladder rack topper with a smashed in corner that I was worried I'd have to pay to scrap. To me only the bed sides were worth anything, the tailgate that it went with had 2 tears in it and the handle hardware missing.

 

Whoaaa




!!! Mine has some holes in the floor and one fender has rust but tailgate is perfect. Maybe I should try to sell it. Actually, if I was still working I could have fixed it at work. What is a good place to list it?

 

You can try FB marketplace, a lot of people like to use that instead of Craigslist.

 

Thats actually an easy fix with about $1000 in parts. I did that on a 2012 a few months ago. THe floor wasn't as bad, and just took a patch, but all the cross members were shot and had to be replaced, and a reskin wheel arch fixed the rust hole. Then I painted it and it looked pretty good.