Got a pickup...back on track again

[myfirstbonnie]

Do you plan on taking it on long trips far away from home?

When I had my beater, I never carried a spare unless I did and that was very seldom. I made a rack for it to stand up on the side of my box on the inside (although I know your bed is going to be different). Why not make a quick mout type and just throw it in when on the road. This also prevents it from getting in the way when wanting to haul something.

[clm2112]

Little update after a few weeks...

First off, well into cutting up the bed.



Took a break from carving through the steel with a grinder & cutoff wheel. Spent Halloween passing out candy while putting the front hitch on the truck. (mocked it up the day before..and taking Carolyn to the local U-Pull-It yard so she could get an air dam for the bonnie while I got a new front swaybar mount plate for the truck.)



Another weekend... more carving



And more carving....



And finished up last night with most of the beams cut to the new width of the bed along with the temporary bed to frame mounts cut away.



Tonight was a little kitchen table engineering. On the left if the fold-up template for the fuel filler bibs that will get welded to the underside of the bed. On the right is a mock-up of the pedestools that will attach the bed to the truck frame using the existing bed mounting holes in the frame. I will have to make six of them using the steel plates I took off the bed deck.



So, tomorrow night I start cutting the parts out of the steel plate. The dimensions are not really all that critical, just so long as all the parts are identical. I'll probably get some help welding the parts together. I'll start with the filler hose bibs. If it works out ok, then I'll try making up the mounts.

[gonzo4191]

what did you do with the old bed?

[clm2112]

what did you do with the old bed?

The original bed got sold shortly after I got the truck. It's currently on a friend's F350. The steel flatbed was part of the deal, so it was essentially "free".

[clm2112]

Finally back to work. Had a case of the flu the past couple of days. With darkness coming so quickly, it was hard to get anything done at night. (I also switched laptops...I couldn't resist and got a Toshiba NB505 netbook. Loaded it with Win7Pro 32 bit, 2 gig mem, and a 500 gig hard drive... been using it all week instead of the Acer.)

Anywho, I've been cutting out parts and welding them up all day.

Here's one of the bed mounting brackets being cut out and welded..





I had planned on making six of them, but they seem sturdy enough to only need four.

[clm2112]

Another weekend gone, but I am almost done. AnaLuisa decided I wasn't her cup of tea and made herself scarce. Back to being a bachelor again. Still, I got a bit done this weekend. The passenger side of the flatbed is finished. The driver's side is almost ready to have the side chanel welded back on. About 3:00pm I ran out of wire for the welder and had to stop. Went out to the grocery store and to Lowes to get two more spools.



You can see the bib for the fuel filler (made it out of steel plate and welded it directly into the side of bed instead of hanging it under the bed.) I decided to only make one for the rear fuel tank. Once the truck is back in PA, I'm going to remove the forward tank and mount a larger (about 30 gallon) tank on top of the bed. Use it to haul fuel for the tractors.

The bed is sitting on two of the mounts I made, but is slid back about 6" until the last of the welding up near the cab is finished. I figure tomorrow night I'll be able to do that and have it back on road by Thanksgiving. Finish cleaning the frame and paint it all next weekend.

[clm2112]

Still chugging away Corners of the bed today (Going to use lumber between the posts). Also finished the spare tire mount. Not sure I like it...but, it's there now. Tomorrow is paint day. Except for a few of the small parts, I used self shielding wire for the entire bed. After the 4th 1lb spool, I finaly said "Enough!" and bought a 10lb spool.

[clm2112]

Didn't get to paint today, so I worked on more of the bed bits. I got the four angle iron mounts for the under-bed toolboxes (I'll add those later, but I wanted to get the steel in place and welded to the bed now, before decking the bed in wood.)

More steel origami, this time for the mounting points for tail lights. I probably could have used Ford housings (from a step-side bed) but opted to use Jeep CJ tail lights because they were so cheap and easy to find. Finished up tonight with about half the steel for the back end of the bed in place (filling the gap between the tail lights so you can't see the frame from behind the truck.)

[clm2112]

Home stretch... Tail lights on, bed bolted down on the frame, last of the fabrication done (picture was taken before it got dark, I finished this evening with the last of the plates between the tail lights welded on.) Tomorrow, finish painting the bed, turn the truck around, and finish the front bumper work.

[00Beast]

Looks good Curt!!!

[Jrs3800]

Wow Curt....... Jack of all trades...

[ga93sle]

Looks really nice! I like how you managed to keep the rear bumper.

[clm2112]

I'm rather pleased with the results. I was, quite frankly, scared of welding. Now that I've done this bed and the cab work, I think back and giggle about how misguided I was to avoid it for so long. I'm not at the pro level by any stretch of the imagination, but the welds are strong enough and are looking better with each attempt. (funny, now I'm looking around to see what else I can cobble together out of steel... like a transport cart for a 3800 motor similar to the ones I have for Chevy and Ford V8 motors.)

[wake]

looks pretty good bud, i may have missed it but are you sticking with the white rims or the ones that are on the truck?

[clm2112]

looks pretty good bud, i may have missed it but are you sticking with the white rims or the ones that are on the truck?

For the moment, I'm sticking with the rims on the truck. They are a bit beat up, but still usable. I can't find any manufacturer's marks on them, so I haven't been able to match that design (otherwise I would have gone for the same style for the spare tire.) With tires costing me nearly $200 each, the rims need to stick around for a while. I bought the one steel one for a spare tire. Maybe use that style rim on the truck the next time I need to change the tires.

[clm2112]

I do think I have another problem. Dual tank fuel system has only worked correctly on the rear tank. Now the front tank is full of fuel from the rear tank. Doing some reading online, it sounds like the valving in the front tank fuel pump module is toast.

Looks like I'm going to be removing the front tank earlier than I expected. (instead of replacing the front pump, I'll go with the single rear tank and plug the lines to the front tank.) A 300 mile range on a tank will have to suffice for the moment. Not willing to plunk down $200 for a new pump assembly when 50 cents of plumbing will do.

[clm2112]

All the major work on the bed is finally finished. All that is left is applying a wood deck to it sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, It goes to work with me on Monday.







Truck is now a single fuel tank model... I dropped the tank and plugged the fuel lines. Really easy, cut the barbs off the fuel pump assembly and welded the pipes closed. Connected the "plugs" back into the Ford quick-connect fuel lines, checked for leaks, and zip-tied the lines up against the frame rail. Turns out the tank wasn't original. It was marked up like a used part from LKQ. So, somebody else had a problem with the front fuel tank as well. I'll save the pump (it works) and discard the rest. Might cut the locking ring and flanges out of the tank and save them for the Galaxie.

Meanwhile, it's back to working on the inside of the cab tomorrow finishing up trim pieces. And perhaps get the nerf bars/side steps installed.

[00Beast]

Looks great Curt! Should serve you well for a long time!

[PRD2BDF]

You said you were going to attach toolboxes under the bed? It's looking awfully bare down there.

[clm2112]

You said you were going to attach toolboxes under the bed? It's looking awfully bare down there.

Can't afford them yet. I'll probably have to make them at some point (if I can find the door latch hardware.) The inexpensive boxes I have found are all 18" high and 18" deep. That probably would have worked out OK with the original bed width. With the bed being narrowed, 18" puts the back of toolbox into the leaf spring mounts on the frame. I'll need to find or make them 12"x12"x24". I just welded four 1"x1"x24" angle irons into the underside of the bed to facilitate mounting them later. Set back 3" from the edge of the bed, and 12.25" apart.

While this is a close up of some extra reinforcements I added to the spare tire mount this morning (filling in the open side of the "C" since it was flexing under the weight of the tire), You can also see one of the lengths of angle iron that will mount the toolboxes later on.



I actually learned a little something else in the process. I didn't believe it at first, but as stout as those width-wise C chanels appear, they are really quite flexible. Once I had the tire on the mount, I could grab the top of the tire and wiggle it...it would vibrate like a tuning fork. I thought it was the square tube or plates used to make the spare tire mount. But after dicking with it for an hour or so, I realized that it was the actual beam that was flexing. After adding that little plate to close off the C channel and tie it to the main beam, I can hang my entire weight on the tire and it doesn't budge.