My bed is in need of repair and I am trying to locate a bed from another truck. It's a 79 F250. And if I can't find that I was thinking about buying all of the panels and flooring off of LMC and assembling it. I figured it would all cost about $1500.00. Has anyone done that before? I would love to figure out how to show you the shape of my bed to get some opinions as to the best options for fixing it. If I can patch it up, that would probably be the cheapest. I'm a rookie with this body stuff and trying to figure it out.
Holes have rusted through the tops of both rear fenders to where you can see the tire through the bed. Also the front corners have rusted through as well.

 

For that much money you ought to be able to buy a whole donor truck with a decent bed. Then you can part out, sell whole or scrap the rest of the truck.

Maybe make a trip up here to MT and get one cheap. Here's a good example of a dirt cheap truck with a good bed http://montana.craigslist.org/cto/1317187299.html

 

It's been said on these forums that the quality of the panels from LMC aren't as good as OEM - thinner panels and whatnot... They may be OK for patching holes but I don't know about assembling an entire bed from them... If it were me, I'd see about finding another bed or, if the bed floor is salvageable, just patch the rest and call it good... You should be able to find another bed for much less than $1500 if that's the route you choose to go...

 

I bought an entire bedside (driver's side) from LMC in 2000 and was very pleased with the quality. It might be a gauge thinner than factory, but not very noticeable.

Other than that you might search for a Certi-Fit in your area. They also carry entire bedsides and a buddy I know got one from them (2007) and I swear it was the same as the LMC one. Slightly cheaper than what I paid and no truck freight either since there is a warehouse in Denver for local pick-up.

Josh

 

I just got done putting new bedsides, front bed panel, rear tail pan, and inner wheelhouses on my bed all from lmc and they werent bad. They are a tad thinner and the metal is cheaper quality than original. Fitment was ok but I did have to mess around with them some to get it to fit correctly. Overall im happy with everything I bought but if you can find an original bed around in good shape I'd go that route. Here is my build thread if you want to check out some pictures.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...y-project.html

 

Thanks for the info guys. I think I'll keep looking around for another bed.