I tried to searching but nothing came up. Have any of you cut in stake pockets holes in new bed sides that haven't been cut yet? What size should they be? Squared or rounded?

 

If you're talking 48-52 the holes are 1 7/8" x 1 7/8". Starts right at the edge of the bend and centered over the stake pocket.
I am surprised at how crude the stock stake holes are cut out.

 

Mtflat....I think someone cut your holes....take a look at mine.
notice the material not removed but folded down. also look at the nice radius in the cut at the top corners. The bottom edge is straight and smooth, dents make it look slightly crooked but it was cut straight. 2" wide, 3/4" from edge. Make sure the new cut is within the vertical stake pocket below. This one seems off a tiny bit where the end of the tape is, the pocket cutout on the other side of the bed looked dead-on centered with the pocket below.

(pic came in very large on my screen...some way to scale it down?)

 

Ditto on my Carpenter bed.... however I think the cut is slightly higher than the factory. here it looks above the bend line in the bed side.

 

Mine was an old farm/ranch truck so anything is possible. Thanks for the pictures of what it used to look like.

 

mtflat....you have my curiosity. What year is your bed? mine is '51. I have a rectangular piece at the front of the bed... yours looks round (ish)?

 

Thanks guys! I didn't have anything to compare it to and this bed kit came from Midwest Early Ford without the holes cut but with pockets welded on. So maybe drill a couple 3/8 in holes in the corner and cut a flap to fold down. The only reason I was want the holes is I think that a couple wooden slats look cool. I am not going for originality as my truck is a mash up of junk parts that I am building a vehicle out of....

 

fh4ever, interesting question and may be part of the deal. My F1 is a '48 and is the only box I have presently. The rest of mine are flatbeds on F4 and F6 chassis. I didn't even try to measure the rear pockets because this F1 was involved in a rear-end crash and I had to weld up and reform the rear stake pockets. I do recall the 52 F2 I had used the squared off header panel but I figured it was because it was an express box rather than a model year change.

 

The squared vs. round tube front panel was part of the F1 bed redesign in mid 50. Early beds with the raised panel sides had the round tube, later beds with flat sides used the rectangle bent sheet metal.

 

that was kinda what I was thinking....thanks for clearing that up 52merc

 

after more thought on this....did Ford ever make any '48-'52 beds without stake pockets?
Except for the stake pocket cutouts, Mtflat's bed kinda looks original the way the front panel is assembled to the side with the rivets. Just wondering !

 

A little more history so you know what you're looking at.. As far as I know the box assembly is original. I bought it in 1999, took 5 layers of paint off with chem stripper. Then primed it with red oxide primer and top coated with 1999 Honda Accord "Dark Amethyst Pearl paint. Thus the color is not original. It's scarred up because I drove it as a daily for 10 years and used it as a work truck. When the rebuild was done I installed a 2 board rack mounted in the stake holes.

 

I found this and still confused...someone educate me. What is the difference between a pick up box and express box? The express box below looks like the 48-50 and the pick up box looks like the 51-52. The express box below looks to be a long bed. Also, notice the on the pick up box...there are pockets in the rear but not the front. (maybe this explains why mtflat's front pockets were cut out later??) Also hard to tell, but the express box stake pocket cut outs seem to be completely cut out so there is no tab to be "bent inwards" into the hole.
apologies for my OCD !!

 

Yeah, you're way overthinking this. The pickup boxes had a stake pocket on all 4 corners. The lazy artist there just didn't draw a hole. It's there in real life. The Express bed was Ford's name for the long, 8' bed used on the F2/3 Express trucks.