A good friend of mine does excellent fabrication work. I don't have the patience or time to try to make a flatbed for the truck - as much as I want to. Its condition has deteriorated quite badly and isn't really useful for any truck stuff. Oddly enough, the tailgate is the best part of the whole truck. But a newer truck is $30K and won't fit in the parking garage at work.
Started by pulling off some old Cherokee roof sections that were self tappered in. When I pulled the ones off on the right side, the middle of the bed dropped down. I thought I was going to be standing on the differential!
There was nothing olding the middle of the bed on except for the cherokee roof panels (there's still one on the right...). For some reason , the bed rusted the worst at the bolts. There were no rails under this section any more. I should note, this truck has never had a bed liner.
Doesn't look that bad ..
3 of the 4 bolts that were attached came out. The 4th stripped. Of course it was the one that actually had a good rail. Ended up grinding the top of it off.
Borrowed an engine hoist and strapped to anchors in the 4 corners:
I tried to adjust the front ratchet strap and it fell off . Whoops. Didn't go through the window, thankfully.
That stupid block infront of the RR tire caused us major problems about 10 minutes after this picture was taken. The bed likes to nosedive apparently. So my friend picked up on the front and I would push the truck forward. But for some reason it wouldn't move forward any more. It took us far too long to figure out there was a block infront of the tire.
Almost off. Moved the block:
Kind of a good picture of what isn't left
Frame is scaly but not rotted out. Even the crossmember is good. Better than I was expecting, not as good as I was hoping for.
I'll probably sandblast if I can get time. I pressure washed the frame off on the highest pressure setting. I must have vaccumed up 50 pounds of rust that came from the bed. And paint. But looks good after I pressure washed it (this pic was before I did that)
Shackles, spring hangers and springs look in good shape too! I had thought that the cab started to colapse on the driver's side, but inspecting the body mounts / torque boxes it's good. Measures the same distance from the frame on both sides. I think the bed was doing some weird geometry.
Waiting on some taillights to come in. They're supposed to be OEM Ford Grote cab/chassis tail lights. My goal is to make a harness using Ford components so I don't have to hack up the wiring on the truck.
The bed is better than most. There are a few for sale locally for $2000 that are in worse shape than this one. And they'll sell in a week easily. I'd like to do new cross bars on this one, repair the bad floor sections and weld in some wheel wells. 99-04 SDs are my favorite trucks. I have bad luck with 2v modulars (specifically cylinder 5) but I'd like to get another 5.4 or even a 6.8 truck again. I will avoid the ZF-5, either I'll go for a 6 speed gas job or buy one with an automatic and pull it and have it built up. Maybe this bed will find its way to another one of these trucks of mine.
Started by pulling off some old Cherokee roof sections that were self tappered in. When I pulled the ones off on the right side, the middle of the bed dropped down. I thought I was going to be standing on the differential!
There was nothing olding the middle of the bed on except for the cherokee roof panels (there's still one on the right...). For some reason , the bed rusted the worst at the bolts. There were no rails under this section any more. I should note, this truck has never had a bed liner.
Doesn't look that bad ..
3 of the 4 bolts that were attached came out. The 4th stripped. Of course it was the one that actually had a good rail. Ended up grinding the top of it off.
Borrowed an engine hoist and strapped to anchors in the 4 corners:
I tried to adjust the front ratchet strap and it fell off . Whoops. Didn't go through the window, thankfully.
That stupid block infront of the RR tire caused us major problems about 10 minutes after this picture was taken. The bed likes to nosedive apparently. So my friend picked up on the front and I would push the truck forward. But for some reason it wouldn't move forward any more. It took us far too long to figure out there was a block infront of the tire.
Almost off. Moved the block:
Kind of a good picture of what isn't left
Frame is scaly but not rotted out. Even the crossmember is good. Better than I was expecting, not as good as I was hoping for.
I'll probably sandblast if I can get time. I pressure washed the frame off on the highest pressure setting. I must have vaccumed up 50 pounds of rust that came from the bed. And paint. But looks good after I pressure washed it (this pic was before I did that)
Shackles, spring hangers and springs look in good shape too! I had thought that the cab started to colapse on the driver's side, but inspecting the body mounts / torque boxes it's good. Measures the same distance from the frame on both sides. I think the bed was doing some weird geometry.
Waiting on some taillights to come in. They're supposed to be OEM Ford Grote cab/chassis tail lights. My goal is to make a harness using Ford components so I don't have to hack up the wiring on the truck.
The bed is better than most. There are a few for sale locally for $2000 that are in worse shape than this one. And they'll sell in a week easily. I'd like to do new cross bars on this one, repair the bad floor sections and weld in some wheel wells. 99-04 SDs are my favorite trucks. I have bad luck with 2v modulars (specifically cylinder 5) but I'd like to get another 5.4 or even a 6.8 truck again. I will avoid the ZF-5, either I'll go for a 6 speed gas job or buy one with an automatic and pull it and have it built up. Maybe this bed will find its way to another one of these trucks of mine.
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