I looked through several pages of old bed replacement conversations and didn't really answer this question so I thought I would post it...

Are any beds from the 150, 250, and/or 350 interchangable? It seems to be that quarter panels were interchangable between the different size trucks so I was wondering if you could transplant a whole bed from say a 150 into a 250 or some other combination.

The reason I ask is that I want to get started in having a mid-70's toy truck but the ones around here are pretty well rusted out, and as we all know it's hard to find direct-replacement 30-year-old beds in good condition.

Again I apologize if this is a re-post, but I did not see it in old posts.

 

Your question doesn't have a simple answer. You see there are a few things you have to keep in mind. First thing stay away from the 1973-79 f-350 super camper beds. The wheel base lengths on these trucks are longer. You can tell these beds by looking at the passenger side. They have an opening in the bedside for the spare tire. Then the next thing to keep in mind is that the 73-76? f-250 4x4. And the 73-79 f-250 Highboy trucks is that the frame rails get narrower in the rear behind the cab. An easy solution for this is to either drill new holes the floor of the bed to bolt it to a 150. Or get some flat bar and make brakets so that you can use a more factory look an no extra holes in the bed floor. And also these brackets can replace the spacers that go between the bed and frame rails. Another option is you can get a bed from an 80-96 truck, and put the 73-79 style bedsides on that bed and then you would have to measure the rear cross rail on the older bed and drill out the spot welds of that same rail and relocate it to the correct position and weld it in place and bolt the bed to your truck. Hope this helps.

 

That does help considerably. My biggest hangup in what truck to look for is the availability of beds. I like the 250 size, but there is much better availability of 150's best I can tell. I had not even thought of the possibility of putting old style sides on a newer box. I would imagine that would make for a better working tailgate as well. Thanks for the help.

 

F150, F250, or F350 beds will fit 73-79. But as mentioned before, some camper specials have a bed with the spare tire compartment on the passener side. Usually, those are hard to come by anyway. The other difference is that the 73-77.5 F250 4x4s AKA Highboys have the narrower frame. The only difference in those beds are the mounting holes, everything else basically the same. Those are hard to come by also. Of course beds have different trim levels, single fuel tanks or dual tanks, round filler holes versus square filling holes.