And some rust buckets come to life...

 

Is that a bar welded to the rear of the truck bed? If so, that's about the same thing I had to do with ours. The rear sill plate is roached, and the sides of the truck bed actually slant outwards/downwards. As a temp fix I have a cargo strap holding the rear of the bed so it's kinda not slanted, but there is still a good 2-3" drop from the front of the bed to the rear of it.

I'll get some photos in the next few months when I pull the bed liner out and view all the cancer. I know the bed itself is hosed--I can see major holes and the black plastic bed liner covering it up.

Oddly enough? The frame has a lot of caked on rust, but it's still pretty solid. I'll be rust bulleting it come spring time when the weather mellows out to the point I can pull the bed and still move it around.

It's off the road until we are finished, so no more massive amounts of road salt will hit the truck. (just the small amount we had to use yesterday getting it unstuck from the ice dam that hit)

S-

 

I have never seen a bed rust like that unless some underlying story. But, rust or no rust, these trucks still keep on going.

 

Tedybear, no that bar is not welded on, there are tabs on each end that fit in the stake pockets. The expanded steel gate swings out. Last time we drove north to Duluth, MN to get some lumber we lost some more sheet metal. The truck runs great with a swapped in 390 out of my old truck. If you look close you can see plywood in the bed. That's because the floor was gone. It's still functional because it's a Ford. We could start a rustiest truck contest but it wouldn't be fair to the people who live down south. LOL My Jeep would be a good contender but it's not a Ford, so it's ineligible. Should we start a post?

 

Not quite yet LOL. We are still a ways from pulling the rubber/plastic truck bed liner from ours. I think all that is holding the bed/box together at this point is rust and bird droppings. I was under it when we first got it into the garage. They had the aftermarket camper bars with chains attached to secure one of the old school campers that fit into the box with the overhang over the cab. Actually found the cab intercom to boot!. The only thing holding the sides of the box at this point...is the steel bars that stick out a few inches. The bars are bent downwards under the weight..

I'm considering as a temp thing to get some 2" (or whatever it measures at) steel box metal from something like fastenal. Cutting out the rear sill which is in pieces, replacing it with the new box steel and using a couple of the repair 'posts'. Weld the whole thing together and have that pull the sides back up and inline. Just to get the weight off the camper bars (we are going to remove all 4 anyway) and maybe we can get it stable enough to put back on the road, without worry of the bed flying off with the first corner. LOL.

I'm going to take some major photoage once we start tearing into the body work. That's going to have to wait until the snow melts off. This thing kills me--we have 6 sand bags @60lbs per over the axle...Plus the whole bed is FULL of wet packed snow. And it still got stuck?!?!?. My step father came out and we looked over the rear tires--let about 15lbs of air out...and it moved pretty easy after that.

S-

 

I guess going to the Car wash wont matter eh

 

By the family that owned the truck before us? Yeah I'd say they would have been better off taking it to a car wash. We only paid $300 for the truck, and so far we are up to about a grand in parts just to deal with the mechanicals.

Ours is a project to restore, and we knew mostly what we where getting into. But it's a labor of love to put blood sweat and tears into something that you'll be able to enjoy once done.

So to answer the question? Yes we have plenty of car washes in my area- To bad the owners before us didn't make use of them. :-)

S-