New stepside
 

Hi guys...newbie to this forum as I've been in the '92-'96 forum.
Picked up an '84 Stepside today...351W, Auto 4X4, dual exhaust
with rebuilt 4 brl and new top end....guy was gonna part it out.
Picked it up for $500. Bed will need a little work, but the body is straight
and rust free. Any tips on these, haven't restored a wood bed before.
Try to post a pic if I can...

The stepside bed is not very common, so hold onto that. You can see if the old f100 wood bed kits will fit your bed. The 53-56 forum might be some help in that area. I did make my own bed wood for my 53, but it's some work. You have to use a table saw or a router and make a rabbit edge on the wood so the metal strips will sit flush. They also make polished stainless steel strips if you want to get fancy.

Thanks for the info Franklin2. This thing is in better shape than my '94 underneath
and body-wise. Should be fun.

Looks like previous owner did a strip job on the emissions equipment, as there is
nothing hooked up for vacuum stuff and a few things plugged off. Going to have to
look over the vacuum diagram and see if everything is hooked up that should be.

If you don't have under hood inspections, and it runs good, I personally would not worry about some of the vacuum connections. So long as the dist is getting vacuum, and the heater/A/C and the tranny and brake booster are getting vacuum. Getting it back right can be a headache.

P.S. There were some early California models with a computer controlled system on the 351w. If your distributor does not have a vacuum line connection, then you do have one of these systems, and I would recommend converting it over to the regular non-computer setup.

MAR-K has a wood bed kit for this truck and information on finishing.

Try http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finishing.html

You can go to the main home page and click on Browse our Online Catalog to see the wood bed kits.

Good Luck!

Bruce Horkeys Wood Products is another good place to get parts for you stepside. NPD (National Parts Depot) has a fair selection as well. Those 2 work good for a lot of the hard to find items. LMC Truck has most of the small things like bolts, chain kits and such. I highly recommend LMC myself, I have never had a problem with them yet. Hope you get what you need.

I made my own ( and on a small table saw. ). But the beds are same basic shape back way way back . So a bed kit wouldn't be hard to find.

what have you guys been doing about the outer rails. My bed is in really good shape but the outer rails (attached to inner bed sides) on either side are rusted throught in acouple places. Other than sheet metal work what can be done to cover this up?

Congrats on the new flareside man hope you enjoy it

the stepside is awesome
 

I have a 1980 f-100. Does anybody here know of a good place to go where you can pick up a stepside bed? like a remanufactured one or anything? right now i just have the regular full size bed but i want a stepside

Wizard. Do yourself a favor and start a new thread. this one is 3 years old

And Wizard, please fill out the rest of your profile so we can see where you're at. Click
User CP in the upper LH corner, there's a bunch of stuff in the LH column you can edit.