Hi Guys,

I need your help or good advice this time.

I'm rebuilding the short bed on my 51 F1. I'm not taking it off the truck as I really don't want to break the integrity between the running boards, fenders and bed sides.

My dad had this piece of 3/4 inch plywood as the bed floor that has more oil in it than Texas. I cut it out and found I had to replace the front panel. No problem, C&G had one and after some rivet drilling and grinding a few spot welds by the PO, it was off.

Here's my problem. All the square holes on the bottom strip of the side panels have been pulled and broken. I checked with C&G; LMC; Mar-K, and MACs to see if anyone had a weld on patch strip, and they didn't(or I missed it).

I guess I could weld on a piece of straight stock on top of it, but then I have to drill the holes and square them all up with Havi's triangular file- a royal pain, there's a lot of those holes.

Can anyone tell me if they know of a place or person who makes patch strips for those, or an easier way to get the correct square holes in the stock strip I would weld in. I guess it could be done before welding, but with what?- on wood you'd use a mortiser. But what on metal?

Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Julie

 

Julie,

MAR-K sells the angled bed strips for 30.00 for the pair that have the square holes in them. These are not stock but look like they belong. They match the other bed strips. They would cover the damaged area and extend up the side app. 1" I bought a set for my '53 I think that they are still offering free shipping.

 

You might try letting your fingers do the walking through the local yellow pages and talk to some sheetmetal people and see if they have the square punches and could punch the holes. Alot of times plumbing and mechanical contractors have pretty extensive fab shops. Either that or regular metal fabrication shops. If you can find a fab shop that has an ironworker but didn't have the square punches for it you could always offer to pay for the square punch and die set.

Electricians use a hand held hole puncher, I think they are made by a company called Greenlee.....maybe they have a square punch

good luck
Bobby

 

This subject has come up before, square hole for the side box panels where the fenders bolt up. My suggestion was the same as Bobby's, have a fab shop stamp a bunch of square holes in a piece of sheet metal, cut out the size patch you need and weld it in.

Bobby, I know the type of electricains punch you're talking about. I use them on daily basis to build industrial control panels. They aren't made to do mass production and don't come as small as what is needed. The smaller square punches I have had to use are a pain and can only punch light guage metal.

 

Bob,

cool, I wasn't sure if the Greenlee would be practical or not. I do know that getting a punch and die set for a Scotchman ironworker is not too expensive (less than $100 maybe...well at least they weren't too bad 7 or 8 years ago back when I worked in the fab shop) Who knows, maybe some fab shop with an ironworker would be willing to split the bill

I'm such a tightwad I'd probably be relegated to drilling and filing each and every hole....lol

Bobby

 

Bobby, I don't think you would mind doing it all by hand as long as there was enough frosties. After a while the holes might not be as perfect as when you started though

 

but they are covered up anyhow!..

Sam

 

.........LOL........

I had so many frosties that in my case I eliminated all of them

Bobby

 

I'm mountin my bed wood on top of the flange, so they won't be seen anyhow!

Sam

 

Eastwood has a square hole cutter

 

I did the drill-and-file but with a square tapered file. I had a sheet metal shop make me some angles, I marked, drilled and filed both sides in less than an hour in 14 gauge. It's not worth the trouble to do any different IMO. If you drill to 5/16, you're just taking out the corners.

 

I did as Ross only it was all the holes on the bed sides .It doesn't take long to make a 5/16 hole sq. Besides a little self pentince never hurt anyone .

 

Try this:

http://upper.us.edu/faculty/smith/reuleaux.htm

and then for a little more light reading:

Reuleaux Triangle

 

Bob ,any way possible to make that more difficult .My head hurt from just trying to read and understand it .That would take about a 36 pack of frosties .

 

36 pack? OK, count me in