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Yes the style side beds can be lifted off in 1 part. It's the flare sided that cant, like I have, as they are in parts when put together.
If you dont have friends but have a engine hoist or strong tree and come along you can lift it off your self.
Style sides have a lip on the inside of the bed. flare sides do not have this lip, and you can make a jig to fit in there to lift from.
Out of wood make a H to fit under the lip and lift from the center of the H.
I think others have used straps but that can pull on the bed sides and might bend them in.
I did not care about this bed, the other side is caved in from a roll over and has some rust and I just wanted the ribbed floor to replace the flare side wood floor.
The hoist is touching the bed side but think if lifted from the rear it may clear but I did not have room to get the hoist in from the back.
My garage has open rafters that I could of used but I would not be able to move the bed once lifted to strip it down to what I needed.
I have also used the hoist to remove the cab & nose from the parts truck as I had no help.
Dave ----
I just went through this with the fuel tank in my winter beater PU. I was gonna try doing a quick swap from underneath, but I ended up deciding to pull the bed, which only added few hours of work overall and made life so much easier. I have an H frame i built years ago for doing it with a hoist, pretty much copied the ones available from Jegs/Eastwood/Etc., so it's a pretty easy 1 man job for me. And since i wasn't in pain and pissed off from repeatedly having to get up and down for tools, or crawl around under a truck while working on my back for hours, or getting fuel dumped on me, i ended up taking the time to run a wire wheel over the frame and blast it with fluid film before putting it all back together. I'm getting to old, and my bodies been to abused, for crawling under cars, I really need a lift.
Sounds like removing the bed is the way to go. I definitely like the idea of accessing everything from the top and also being about to clean and paint the frame. If I can get that aux tank running and it doesn't leak, I'll make plans to pull the bed and replace the entire fuel system.
I've been looking up the h frame and that could work. I have an engine hoist so it seems doable.
I'm planning to pull the bed so I can change out the fuel system. I tried running the truck from the forward gas tank but the sending unit doesn't work so I'll just end up replacing everything.
While I'm doing that, I'll plan to rework the brake system as well. Currently I have drum brakes in the back and disc in the front. I'm attaching pics of the engine bay components. I've been reading the through the forum and it seems that the most satisfied owners are those who converted to the hydro boost system. I'm considering changing both front/back to new disc/calipers, the hydro boost and possibly a new saginaw power steering pump. From what I've been reading that seems to be best way to go.
Any thoughts from those who have made a conversion would be appreciated. Also, I've been looking around at kits for the conversions and it looks like I'll have to get several different ones to put a complete system together. I just want to make sure everything will work once it's all together.
So I've been doing more research on the hydro boost brake system. It seems like the saginaw pump with the two outlets is the way to go and I've seen a number of kits available to convert it. I was thinking discs in the front (which I have now) and I haven't decided on disc or new drum in the rear (maybe a little partial to disc all around). The calipers in the front are sticking and need to be replaced. Can I get off the rack calipers as replacements or do they need to be the same as what's on there now? I've seen where the '74 may have come with factory disc up front versus someone converting it from drum.
Also I've seen where guys have cannibalized parts from newer models found in junkyards. If I knew which vehicles contained parts I could use, I would probably shop for new/remanufactured parts for those cars and create the system using them. This would be significantly cheaper than buying a kit for close to $1k. Any thoughts?
Yes. Post up some pictures of the brakes you have on there now and maybe someone can tell you if they are factory original, factory from a later model, or something else entirely.
If mine, I'd run the tank to near empty sometime .... pump the remainder of fuel out using a cheap fuel pump or siphon, disconnect the hose and sender wire, unclamp the fill and vent hoses, maybe remove my hitch, and just drop it using a jack with wood platform if needed It's not much heavy when empty ... my hitch is heavier I have a motorcycle ATV jack with two arms that stays level. No way I'm gonna risk bed paint to get a tank out. My hitch is near about 6" below the tank so it might not need to be removed?
Gas fill hose is 2-1/4" ID, even Amazon has it but my last bit was bought over the counter at Napa. Use a 5/16 six point socket to adjust the clamp.
Interested to see pictures of the calipers themselves. But from here it looks like some pretty old parts very likely original.
The hose fitting looks to be Ford at least.
I don’t like the gap between the rotor and the backing plate/rock shield (makes it look cobbled together) but I have seen it’s like before.
Single piston calipers like my '77 has. I did upgrade the booster / MC / calipers as a total deal though. Used larger pistoned '79 Thunderbird calipers. F350 booster & MC. Was gonna use SS flex hoses, but I found I had new rubber hoses in a box.
So you don't have the hydroboost or was that standard on the F350? If you do have the hydroboost, did you swap out the power steering pump?
I would like to do the same regarding the upgrade - get parts from another vehicle whether reman/new but I don't know of a way to cross reference parts to see which vehicles are compatible with my '74 F100.
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