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?
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.
1964 F 100 - I am going to do "something" with it.......
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.
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.
Driver: 71 F100 Shortbed: Disc swap, 5.0 HO EFI & AOD Project Vehicle/Mild Custom: 66 F100 CC longbed: Sold
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.
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
1961 F350 1964 Galaxie convertable 1964 flairside, style side, and longbed 1965 Ranger, and shortbed 1966 long bed, and shortbed A few parts trucks also 1991 Capri 2011 F250 2004 Lexus
