Any advice, tips or tricks for removing a '79 F100 longbed?

 

I read in a magazine you can pull into your shop, use 4 ratchet straps hooked to the rafters, attach to each corner of the bed, and start walking around ratcheting a little at a time. Before long you can pull the fram out from under it.

Cherry picker with an extension welded on is another alternative.

 

Depends on whether its a good one or a rotten one?
Its easy to remove a no good one but it can be very hard to remove one you want to save.
Which is yours?

 

weld some nuts to the top of the bolts,cause they'll probably spin unless your bed is mint and the bolts are new,and spin them of with an impact gun,or rachet.get two saw horses to set it on,then get a couple of friends with good back and lift it off.

 

OK, a lot of it is easy to figure out so I will just hit the tricks and tips.

If you have any of the bed bolts with the philips head bed bolt and a frame clip for a nut on the frame, forget about it without heating up the frame clip. Just cut the thing and put a new bolt and nut in it's place. Cutting it is no simple task either. Do NOT get torches involved unless you know what you are doing. (Gas lines, tanks and wires under the truck and a very soft floor up top.) I recommend a side grinder and being careful not to gouge the floor. Cut the head off and the rest will slip down through the bed floor and cross sill. Hopefully you do not have any of those troublesome philips head bed bolts!

Don't forget there is also a hose clamp holding the filler neck/s to a flange/tab under the bed. Look under there, you will see it.

I like to leave the filler necks attached to the tanks. The bed will lift off and around the filler necks just fine. Remove the filler neck door flap and one screw for the plastic filler neck top housing and push the housing off the gasket stuck to the bed before lifting the bed.

There are 4 lift holes on the inside panels just below the stake pockets front and rear. Use those. I go at them from the inside of the bed with no trouble rather than try to get at them through the stake pocket and risk denting a pocket with your "S" hook. "S" type hooks go in there the best

Cross your straps if lifting with straps from a center lifting point, I learned the hard way when a driver front to driver rear strap slid off the lifting hook and dropped a bed on it's side! Cross your straps and try to have plenty of slack in the straps (3 or 4 feet if you can get it) so you are not pulling so hard sideways on the lift points.

If a gang of you plan to lift the bed by hand, remove the rear bumper and make sure the guys with the better back get the front. They will need to lean over while lifting to get around the rear tires. Lift even or the meat heads that try to show you how strong they are by lifting too fast and higher than everyone else will just be throwing all the weight to the poor guys with the now lower portion of the bed. Those meat heads deserve to be scolded every time they do this! LOL! Instruct the help NOT to stop and rest with the front quarter panels on the rear tires! 4 strong backs can lift the bed with about 100 pounds each. At least that is what it feels like if you all work together.

If you try the ratchet to the ceiling trick, be sure to have a lowering plan. (enough strap in ratchet to lower it to the ground after the frame is gone or a recovery table to roll under the bed?) Also some ratchets will release if you fill the spool up with too much strap so be careful about that when lifting the 18" or so it will take to clear the tires.

Good luck and be safe.

 

here is what i did, remove the bed floor bolts, then get a engine crane, and get 2 pieces of heavy chain, and get 4 bolts with the rounded loop heads, and simply attach the chain to each bolt which will be in the beds 4 bolt holes, and its a good idea to push the bed to one side so you don't but the bolt through the frame holes then loop your chain onto the hook on the engine crane, (which its arm is pushed in where the tailgate is), then jack the engine crane up, and make sure your tailgate is off, other wise you could crush the trim on it then you simply back up with the bed and slowly lower your bed down to the clear space on the ground! its a piece of cake, just take your time and you will be fine, also you can do this with one person, but 2 people is always a good idea, hope this idea helped and good luck with your project!

-Brent

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I will put it to good use.

 

nevermind double post

 

Yup, I second the grinding of the bolts. It is what I had to do to get the bed off of my 71. Took a little bit of time but worked great. Once I got it loose I hooked up ratchet straps to some rafters and worked it up.

 

I didn't use a crane or rafters, I used four 55 gallon drums (etc) and scissor jacks. ;)

I lifted the bed high enough to roll out from under it.

Just need two cross pipes/beams for the bed to rest on as it goes up.
Did it by myself.
No sweat.
No bolt problems or anything.

YMMV

Oooo... this thread just got me to thinking, I can replace my one Phillips head
bolt with a carriage bolt from my F100 parts truck. Cool. :) Looked like the
factory used a Phillips head bolt because of my auxiliary tank(?) but I moved
that bolt to a place easier to get to... for the day... I found... a replacement.

Alvin in AZ