Kathy said today that you can teach a old dog new tricks

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

as me being the old Dog, I never realized that the bolts that holds the part that that tailgate latches in at the top of bed on a 1964 as opposed to the 67 and up trucks, 1964 is fine thread and 67 and up is coarse thread,, will have to check the 65/66 trucks to see that,, of course I really don't take those parts off, but had today to get a 64 bed off and never realized the difference , so while I was walking back up the driveway , Kathy yells that out to me,, Oh well she got one up on me

[slick4x4]

Yes ... it's kind of interesting where you find some fine thread bolts in places
I guess the engineers knew what they were doing
Ive never found a loose bolt yet taking something apart
Most of the time.... They don't even want to come loose

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

See Pat I sold a 64 Long Bed the other day with no hardware, I needed those brackets so when we pull a bed I hook a strap to those two brackets raise it high enough to get jack stands under the wheel tubs. lower down the bed on the jack stands so then I can come in with fork lift and raise the bed up off the frame, we hardly sell those brackets so now found out bolts where fine thread. Do know door hinges/hood hinges are fine thread so now I can add on a 64 that those bolts are fine thread

[slick4x4]

It seems like there was something I took apart
(Not sure what it was , hood ? Doors ? Can't remember)
That was fine thread on one truck .... but standard on another ...
Different years ? ... or am I just mixed up on my thinking

[oldsmiley]

Yep, Ford went to course thread in 1965. Learned that years ago when swapping a 66 hood hinge onto
my 64. The threaded insert in the bottom of the 61-66 hood hinges is fine thread on 61-64, and course
thread on 65-66.

Not to sure about ALL the things Ford changed after they came back from lunch......

[slick4x4]

That's what I was thinking .. but wasn't 100% sure

Would love to know the reason behind that change

[6166 Junkyard Dog]

Pat since we do late model trucks we have our trusty metric set out and going real good UNTIL, some idiot at Ford throws this in where you have to have a 5.5 socket, now I ask you what wrong with a 5 or 6 socket 92-97 trucks for front fenders need a 5.5 and interior on 97-2006 and maybe later , you guess it 5.5, must have gone out for a burger when sizes where introduced

[The Big M]

That's what I was thinking .. but wasn't 100% sure

Would love to know the reason behind that change

My guess would be quicker assembly on the line, with the tradeoffs being clamping force and resistance to loosening under vibration. Perhaps they were able to consolidate some bolt sizes by making the change, though I'm not sure manufacturers paid that much attention to those types of details back then.