bed bolts

[Byronb3b]

I am in the process (Slowly) of replacing the boards in my pickup bed, the wood that I took out was the original but had been removed and reinstalled some time in the past when the pickup was painted, there were bolts installed in the flange at the back of the cab. I think I read somewhere that there were none there originally, anyone have experience or knowledge on this one?? thought I best be sure before I start drilling holes. Also thanks to a great and very helpful group. Byron

[Jim Shepard]

There were no bolts or any other attachments in the front of the bed. The boards rested on a flange at the bottom of the head board. The only places the boards were actually bolted to anything was on the sides and the six big bolts that went through to the frame. Everything else was held together by the bolts through the skid strips. I'm not sure what you mean by "the flange at the back of the cab."

[Byronb3b]

Thanks, Jim for the reply, I meant the end of the bed closest to the cab. There are holes in the flange in a depression in metal, maybe for drainage??

[Jim Shepard]

I had a fairly pristeen truck before I started the restoration and it didn't have any hole up there. Yours were probably added by someone. If you ordered a bed kit from someone like Bruce Horkey, you wouldn't get any bolts for holes in the front flange. The boards just rest there.

[Merle Coggins]

That's interesting. I've recently been in contact with Mar-K regarding their reproduction front panel for '53 and up beds. They told me that it wouldn't fit my '50 because of the hole spacing where the boards attach. Seems that in '53 they went with 7 boards instead of 5. They have recently added a '48-52 front bed panel, but I haven't ordered one yet. That lower flange on mine was rusted quite a bit. I don't remember fully, but I thought that that front bed panel rested on top of the boards, as does the side panel flanges.

Merle

[Byronb3b]

Just out to the shop and check out the holes, they appear to be punched not drilled as one side is flat. someone may have decided to add bolts when it was dissasembled for the repaint I'll leave the bolts out as the holes will provide a path for water to drain. Thanks for the input. Byron

[grey beard]

Merle,

You are correct - there were no bolts in the front bulkhead lower flange unless 53 was different from other Pilothouse beds. Just finished up my own bed last week and am very pleased - although it is just black and not the furniture showroom look seen on many restorations.

Am now in the middle of body work on the nose - while it's apart. I want to get the grille bars on before the radiator goes in, cause I can't get my hand in there later on. This forces me into the body/paint mode before I was really ready - haven't driven it yet - can't find my white bucket like you used. Actually, cab and seat are still in place - nose still off.

[Merle Coggins]

I went out and had another look at my front bed panel this morning. It still has the bolts in it. When I dissassembled the bed the wood and bed strips was so rotten that I just pulled it all off in pieces and left all the bolts where they were.

And I can see from the marks, and remnents of rust and wood, that the wood did indeed sit on top of the flange.

Are the bed strips bolted through these holes? That would tend to make more sense. It would help hold the boards down in the front.

Merle

[Byronb3b]

On my boards, which I am sure are original each board had a hole drilled in about the center, right at the end of the board, the bolt went through the board and into the hole in the flange, if they were that way from the factory or someone added them later, I cannot say. Byron

[grey beard]

Mar-K says no bolts in the front bulkhead, yet it seems that all of our trucks have holes drilled/punched at this point. It was my belief from looking at the mess my bed was in that these holes were drilled by later shop engineers to keep replacement boards in place. My own bed wood was so bad that my six year old grandson, Luke, was able to pull the pieces off with his hands and a pry bar and hand them to me one at a time. These pieces were held in with nails, wood screws and miscellaneous bolts. None of the boards were over 30 inches long - all piecemeal stuff just jammed in there to keep the load from falling through.

I can tell you with a certanty that the new Mar-K bed strips are not drilled for the front bulkhead. The first bolt hole on each strip is the front crossmember, through which the two front frame hold-down bolts also pass. This crossmember is jsut a scant four inches behind the bulkhead, so no bolt was needed there. This is also in keeping with the theme used thruought the bed design that no holes are drilled into any boards other than the two outermost ones. There are holes through each strip and both angles in the last inch of the rear ends of each strip that bolt to the bed member immediately in front of the tailgate. These can each be seen between the boards when the tailgate is lowered. JMHO

Having said all that, I cannot see any reason why one could not put bolts through all the boards at the front and tie the bulkhead to them.

[Jim Shepard]

Ok, I went and looked again under my truck and, I stand corrected on my earlier post (damn... I hate it when that happens). I do have hole, spaced so they're about in the middle of each board. I'm still of the opinion that they were added later, maybe as the original boards started to disentigrate and the owner wanted to keep them together. As I said, the Horkey lit I bought did not have bolts for these holes. A couple of other things to consider when contemplating the originality of the holes. First, they're awlfully close to the first row of bolts in the skid strips, which would seem to be overkill. Second, one of the things that keeps the wood from splitting is a minimal number of bolts, which would cut down on the opportunities to split, as well as allowing the wood to slip independently through shifting and expansion/contraction. My 2 cents...

[Merle Coggins]

Mar-K says no bolts in the front bulkhead, yet it seems that all of our trucks have holes drilled/punched at this point.

I can tell you with a certanty that the new Mar-K bed strips are not drilled for the front bulkhead. The first bolt hole on each strip is the front crossmember, ...

OK, now I'm completely confussed. I went back through my emails looking for the correspondance I had with Mar-K regarding the front bed panels, but it must be on my 'puter at work. I know they said that the '53 and up panel wouldn't work on my truck because the bolt spacing would be wrong, and now they have one that is punched for the '48-'52 bolt spacing. And yet everyone here says that no bolts go there. And yet mine had bolts there when I dissassembled it. I'm not saying mine was a perfect original, but I had no reason to believe it had been modified.

Merle

[Dennis_MN]

My 49 has the original boards, just repainted, but that cab end has carriage bolts. I sure would have a hard time believing they were added, but after the dissapearing front fender rivets who knows.

Dennis

[Tony_Urwin]

Have you talked to Bruce Horkey? He was very helpful when I ordered new skid strips for my stakebed. matter of fact, he kinda gave me a lecture on the proper lengths of bed bolts, correct width of the bed wood, etc. He talked real slow, like I might not understand if he went too fast....

My kind of expert.

[Dennis_MN]

Here are a couple of shots of my original bed. It looks like an angle iron was added during painting to cover up some rot on the ends of the boards.

This reminds me of the time when I bought a 1954 Ford pickup from a dealer. He was bragging about the steel bed. I looked and there was about 1/3 of the box was covered with a steel plate and the rest of it was filled with snow. I bought the truck and then in the spring discovered that the plate only covered 1/3 of the box and the snow was covering up the wood that wasn't rotten yet.

Dennis

[grey beard]

Friend Dennis,

Sure don't wanna' burst your bubble, but those boards are in strip sections. The originals were six single boards - not pieces in six slots. Your bed certainly appears to be in nice shape as is the rest of your truck from the fine pics you have posted. JMHO:)

[Merle Coggins]

Dave,

It looks to me that Dennis' bed boards are just splitting, not individual boards. I agree that new bed wood would (that's a strange word combination) really complete his beautiful looking truck, but If I were him I'd be driving it as is for now too. Enjoy it while you can, Dennis. You can always round up all the necessary pieces to redo your bed during the off season.

By the way...

I found my emails from Mar-K. First is my questions to them, followed by their response.

_________________________________________________________________

Hello,

On your web site you list a bed front panel for Dodge trucks ’53-’85. What’s different about this panel that it wouldn’t fit my ’50 ¾ ton Dodge truck? I believe my bed is also 54” wide. Was the bed changed that much in ’53? I know that they changed the fenders, but I wasn’t aware of any other change.

Merle Coggins

Email mcoggins@aring.com

http://www.firstgiving.com/Merle07

_________________________________________________________________

The difference is in the holes in the bottom of the front bed panel where the bed strips bolt. The 48-52 series has 5 bed strips and the 53-85 series has 7 bed strips.

However, we are working on a front bed panel for your year series. I just do not have an exact date when they will be ready for sale.

I will keep your information and check with our engineer. As soon as I know something definite, I will notify you.

Thank you,

Vickie

_________________________________________________________________

I have since been contacted by them to let me know that the new panels are done and ready for sale, but I haven't ordered one yet.

I don't know if this will clear any of this up, or make it more confussing. I just wanted to share what I was told by Mar-K. However, it would appear that the holes in our panels don't match up with the bed strips as mentioned.

Merle

[Young Ed]

Ok guys here's my input. Now I know the 39-47 isn't quite the same as a pilothouse but the 39-47s do have those front bed bolts. I can 100% guarantee they are factory because the bed front has captive nuts for them. Now in the wood I ordered from Mar-K for my truck there were no holes(anywhere actually) so I had to drill them. The bedwood from Horkey for dads 40 ply has all the rest of the holes drilled but those. I believe Horkey told us they tend to split the boards or something like that.