OK VA members. Anyone out there know the best way to remove the taillight wiring from the bed? I'm going the remove the old bed bolts ( YES! I bought new ones to replace all of them with 'CAUSE I KNOW some will snap off! That's just my luck...... ) so I can slide the bed back on my '70 to do some repair/painting work on the the back of the cab. I have an idea of what I want to do but I thought I would ask you guys first that have more expierence with this sort of thing for a better way to do this so I won't screw it up big time.

 

Just pull. . .make sure you unscrew the ground. . .yes, I was being a smart-*** but what else did you mean?

Did you get new wiring? Tape the new wire to the end of the old wire and use it to pull it back though, unless you have some other routing idea

Snapping bolts might not be your biggest concern. Even as old as yours is,the bolts are carriage bolts, correct? If they are rusty, when you put torque to them, you might strip out the square hole they go through in the bed. . .leaving you with a free spinning bolt and nothing to grab onto. If you have a welder you can tack some kind of grip to the head of the bolt. . .if not, and you anticipate them being a bear to remove. . .you might be time and patience ahead either carefully torching them out or cutting the heads off and punching them through

 

I wish I could give you advise on the wiring but I have no clue. The best I can offer is to track it all the way down to get a feel for the way it is ran. I could be wrong but I would imagine that it would be locked down somehow along the way with some form of a clip.

As far as your bed bolts go, that's the fun stuff. I would recommend using a long handled torque wrench with the proper socket that fits and exact fit for the bolts. A long handled torque wrench will give you the greatest amount of leverage I beleive on those bolts. I think on my truck it's a Torx that is required, I'm not sure on your truck.

If the bed bolts have never been removed to your knowledge then I would first just go ahead and soak down as much of the bolt as possible with an agent like PB Blaster. Even if it's just the head of the bolt flush with the bed I would still hit it. Put on your wrench and try to begin backing off the bed bolt.

From your post it sounds like you expect the bolts to be full of rust so don't just back them right off. Pull them back a bit then sink them back down a little. Kind of like a back and forth motion which should allow the rust and contaminants to come out of the threads. When you don't go back and forth as you back the bolts out, that is usually where they will break off. It's kind of like using a tap, if you just go straight in, especially with smaller taps, without letting out some of those shreds of metal then it's going to break your tap.

If you are going to use the same threaded holes for the new bolts I would defenitly recommend getting yourself a tap and cleaning those holes out. I would also recommend that you use anti-seize on your new bolts.

When are you planning on doing this? We don't live to far from eachother if you need a hand.

 

Thanks guys for the replies. Sorry it took so long to get back but web time is at a premium with the part time job on the weekends.

No, no new wiring going in. Just some body work to be done. I will DEFINITELY give those bolts a good soaking before attempting to loosen them however. I think the next door neighbor has access to a welder. Better safe than sorry. Just have to get my ducks in a row as far as time goes. The scenario will probably be a little work each weekday afternoon when I get home as time and the weather in my " outdoor " garage will permit. Weekends are definitely out as I work 15 hrs. on Saturday and another 8 hrs. on Sunday aftrenoons. Besides, I can always drive our other car on the weekends if I have to, so if I get stuck, I / we still have transporttation. Hopefully, I won't fudge up the holes where these carridge bolts are located. Keep your fingers crossed for me. As to when, hmm............, probably after the holiday this weekend. I'll see how it goes. Thanks again for your input. I'll let you know how it went when I get it done.