Prolly tread on some pureists toes tonight. So, before any restoration guru decides to jerk a knot in my bunghole....reiterating, Ol John Lee came out of a garage after a 5 year sit. I'm third owner. This is the second county John Lee has been titled in in near 48 years. He's ever been a working NC truck.
This is not a restoration...I traded three rifles for Ol John Lee in order to have a reliable daily driver, the reasonably good condition and great reliability is a huge plus. I started with the intent to keep Ol John Lee in his working clothing as long as possible. As such, this is no restoration. I am working toward reliable, safe and near original aged but safe condition as possible...not quite a rat rod, just reliable middle aged. Its likely if there ever is a frame off restoration, it'll be some future owner.
Nuff said, so when you see the next few photos of bed removal and clean up, remember, every truck needs a good bed (this one was punked out), minor repairs suitable for repairing the back to sturdy condition will be made (but not with welding, since the metal sides and front will eventually need replaced and there is no money for such a big job right now), the bed will be safe as 4 of the missing hold down bolts are replaced.
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After pulling the passenger side bed side angle strip, (drill out bolt heads, cut spot welds with cold steel chisel), I simply slipped the bolt cutters in under the rest of the bolts and in 30 minutes had the rotted wood and rotted skid strips out and on the floor. I'll hang onto the punked out wood for now as it will serve as patterns when I finally choose the wood...I am still leaning toward yellow pine painted black like this base model came out to the showroom with in 1964. I started a fire with the grinder early, poured my tea down on it and switched back to the drill....no sense in burnin down the house.
The wood out and the frame is pretty straight and in reasonably good condition. The bed sides and header are okay, the header being in the worst shape.
Here is the passenger side of the header. As you can see, rust ate away the lower shelf where the bed wood and skid strips bolt on. For this fix, I'll simply trim the rotted metal and install either an aluminum or steel angle bar painted....black of course. Really all this angle does is keep the wood from curling up with time, so not a super lot of strength needed and a good piece of angle bolted onto the header will stiffin it up nicely. Overall, the repair will be virtually unnoticeable and should serve for many years to come.
As for the bed mounting...the forward four bed to frame bolts were loose, the wood was punked and rotted, nothing to grab onto and you could shift the bed by hand. Out back? The four bed to frame bolts were completly missing. So, in the rear pockets, I installed a bolt on each side with lock washer. These will stay in place. The other six bed to frame bolts are temporary and will be replaced with proper zinc plated carriage bolts when the wood and skid strips go back in.
Lower right is another bed to frame pocket with a new bolt, nut and washer installed. Center is a temporary bolt in the bed side which secures the rear fender strut. I'll be driving Ol John Lee for a few weeks w/o a bed, no sense in having the fenders and brackets wagging in the wind. I'll eventually reinstall an original style phillips bolt with nut and washer. Each of the little holes is a spot weld...the bedside is rusted thru at each and every spot weld. Must have something to do with the change in temper of the metal or just metal fatigue from vibration. No worries, my cold steel chisel (thank goodness for stanley flat tip screwdrivers, best cheep cold steel chisel ever) popped each one out neatly. I'll simple drill out each for a bolt/nut/washer when I reinstall the left and right side angle strips...the angle strips bolt thru the bed wood and stiffen the bedsides considerably....can't weld and the holes are perfectally positioned, so.....
And after some light clean up of the metal and heavily rusted spots, some primer and a bit of black paint to seal up the steel for at least a few more years.
I'll keep going on this job as soon as the angle strips get here. Dad arrives on 20 June, he's in for a suprise cause I'm gonna put him to work painting metal and milling wood for the bed. Then, I'm gonna help him install the new bed. It'll make a nice Father/Son project for a couple days while he's here to visit.