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Finally coming to the end of my restoration of my 56. I will be using the truck for shows but also for general things like buying new plants etc. It has teardrop sides. Currently it has nothing to help tie down anything my wife and I buy. I'd like to get some ideas on what I can do. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
There was an extensive post about some neat tie downs, because of some STUPID rule that you can not do a search until 25 posts, (you can cheat by Google-ing just this site) So if nobody posts I have a have a look for you latter, (dinner and cruise night, gota go).
I used 3/8" stainless eye bolts into the post sockets (nuts inside and outside) to provide tie-downs at the top and bottom of four corners. Works well.
I love them. I have four 1/2" and four 3/8" and plan to put 4 more 3/8". I will probably not use more that a few at a time but there always be one close to where I want it.
In order to minimize the drilling and cutting, I actually mounted a piece of mahogany outside the bed of my 55 under the curved top edge of the bed. Then I mounted some hooks on the mahogany strip to use as tie downs. Worked great.
This is the best picture I still have. Hopefully you can see the rails I made:
Check out marine supply places like Boater's World or West Marine. There is a mooring cleat that sits flush with the deck/bed. Then when you press on it, it pops up and you have a mooring cleat. If you press it down it will stay down. You will have to cut out a oval hole to fit it into.
Since it is made for a marine application, it is a chrome alloy and will not rust or corrode.