Anyone know where to the the bed mounting bolts? My 82 F100 has the 8 bolts. The first two have an oval shape under the head, the next four are square and the last two have the oval shape. They all have the carriage bolt style heads on them though. I called LMC after I saw the bolts in their catalog, but they are all square. I looked through all my other catalogs, NPD, Dennis Carpenter, Jeff's bronco graveyard, and Paddock. I was able to find the 4 square ones at a huge hardware store locally. I'd like to be able to find a set though, Thanks Fred

 

if you find any please post it,i need a set myself

 

If you are going to spend the money on the correct bolts, I would just take a grinder to the square ones if they don't fit and make the oval.

Technically a regular bolt is not correct, but it will work ok. If you look at the factory bolt, it's very large on top, but small at the threads and the hole in the frame is small. If you buy a carriage bolt from the store that will fit the hole in the frame, then it's way too small for the hole in the bed. I have used these before though, and just installed large washers under the bolt head to cover the hole in the bed. But when I did this, I had to grind flats in the carriage bolt head so a adjustable wrench would hold it.

After I did all the above on one bed, the next time I just used regular hex head bolts. Much easier, and loads don't catch on it like I thought they would. I still had to use the large washers under the head of the bolt though.

The reason the Ford bolts are large on the top, is that they stop on top of the frame. When they tightened these bolts down at the factory, the bolt tightened down till the large part of the bolt hit the top of the frame rail, and then it stopped. If you don't have this, it's possible to over tighten the bolt and crush the crossmember piece the bolt goes through. But in reality I have never tightened it enough to crush it, and never had one come loose either using regular bolts.

 

Are you looking for new ones or one out of a wrecking yard? I might be able to locate some in out wrecking yards. There are quite a few for years 1982~85 in one yard I have gone through.

 

thanks for the info.I got a set from LMC hope they work ok.and no i haven't looked in the junk yards.i have a cousin that owns a yard and he hasn't got anything older than 2000 so i didn't look anywhere else.