Bed problems

bigtrip460 · Post by **bigtrip460** » February 9, 2007, 12:17 pm

the bed floor is rusting out and the previous owner welded some flat sheet in from the bulkhead to the wheel wells. also the bed isnt sitting "square" anymore. I figure it has to do with so much of the structure depending on a solid floor and brackets.

I have some ideas on fixes but I thought I would ask here and maybe get some suggestions from guys who have dealt with this before.

I would prefer a steel floor, wood is nice to look at but I couldnt bring myself to drag a transmission across it. ya know?

thanks in advance!

Post by **Greg D** » February 9, 2007, 2:14 pm

Do you have a long or a short truck? If you have a short repairing might be the way to go, used beds are tough to come by. However if your truck is a long, used beds are quite a bit more common. You might save yourself alot of $ and certainly some trouble just finding a better bed. Also depends on how bad the corrosion is.

ICEMAN6166 · Post by **ICEMAN6166** » February 9, 2007, 2:28 pm

there was a NOS bed floor on e-bay a while back, not sure if it ever sold or not.

rjewkes · Post by **rjewkes** » February 9, 2007, 2:41 pm

A Flatbed would be a nice touch or even an utility bed.
I see Both flat and good looking lwb/swb and Flaireside Slicks in the Local yard all the time the floors look great in these too.

dotcentral · Post by **dotcentral** » February 9, 2007, 5:21 pm

You might be able to buy a bed and cut out the floor and replace it that way. Probably tougher to find a slick bed in Ohio, but if you weren't concerned about originality a later bed floor might work just as well.

On my 66, I have about a 2" wide 36" long rust out at the forward bed cross member. I am hoping to find a section I can cut out of a good bed and butt weld it in. still plenty of 67-72's in the yards around here I think they have the same profile. Either that or see if the replacement sections carpenter's sells match the ribbed profile of my truck.

willy3486 · Post by **willy3486** » February 9, 2007, 11:51 pm

The PO on my truck had put in some garbage in the bed when he parked it and 1/3 of the metal floor was rusted out. Then the middle section was about half rusted through with some holes in it. So I just chisled the floor out .I replaced it with one sheet of diamond thread. This last restore I did I got some of the floor coating stuff and put on it. I was really pleased with it. If your bed is still floppy on the ends where the tailgate goes here is how my dad fixed his when I was a kid. He took his tailgate and cut a piece of wood the proper width of the bed. Then you can use one of the straps that you ratchet and put from the holes where the racks go in the back. Then put the wood towards the top and just tighten the strap so the bed will be the width of the wood you cut. See if you can clse and open the tailgate ok. If so just get some algle iron at 90 degrees and weld to the bottom of the floor to the sdes of the bed post but dont weld to the tailgate . after you do this take off the strap and wood and your bed should be firm.

64 f100 · Post by **64 f100** » February 10, 2007, 11:33 am

Some of these beds have wooden blocks for spacers in the steecross braces. You may be missing these or the cross braces may have gone. I have a couple beds here in Illinois, ranging from parts to usable. All need some form of work, and few have good floors.

Rich

bigtrip460 · Post by **bigtrip460** » February 10, 2007, 8:17 pm

thanks for the ideas. I think my best bet would be to find a clean bed floor and weld it in.