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*Sharps40* · 10-18-2012, 05:39 AM

I think bolts are good on the angle strips for now, its sort of a theme whith old trucks, mechanical fastners everywhere and not a lot of spot welding till you look at the roof to cab junctions.

Angle strips for bedsides installed today. The jig to establish the proper height is a section of the original bedside wood. I'll mill a new piece to slip under but for now, lay on the wood, lay on the angle strip, mark the backside of the angle strip from the existing spot weld holes and drill. I'm using 1/4" grade 5 bolts, nuts, fender and lock washers for this install. Plenty of strength, at least as much as the original spot welds and removeable down the road when it comes time to do some repair work on the bed sides, header and tail gate. I also drilled the holes just a bit oversize so I'll have some wiggle room to line up all the angle strip to bed bolts later on this month.

Here is the left side install.

And here about half way through the right side install.

Now I can't leave the box painted with rough edges from the first coat of primer so, a tape line is established using the embossing in the header and the bed sides. When done, I'll have a relatively straight paint line. I want to keep the black color low in the bed so its not such an obvious repair when looking at the truck. Kinda let them old blue coveralls shine when I'm standing back looking at the truck and can see into the top half of the bed area.

A coat of primer next and then some black paint to top it off. I'll get back here when the paint is dry and the tape is off with some final pictures of todays work.
[hr]
This part of the job is done. Decent paint job, relatively straight lines, paint low in the box, everything protected for several more years. Next up is an exhaust heat shield to protect the bed wood from drying out and I need to sister in a strip of aluminum betwen the bed side connector back at the tailgate. 3 of the 9 bolt holes are a bit ate out so a sandwitch of metal underneath will give all the bed wood bolts and equal bite when bolted in.

10-18-2012, 05:39 AM	#5
Sharps40 Account Suspended Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: here Posts: 2,408	Re: Bed Repair for Ol John Lee I think bolts are good on the angle strips for now, its sort of a theme whith old trucks, mechanical fastners everywhere and not a lot of spot welding till you look at the roof to cab junctions. Angle strips for bedsides installed today. The jig to establish the proper height is a section of the original bedside wood. I'll mill a new piece to slip under but for now, lay on the wood, lay on the angle strip, mark the backside of the angle strip from the existing spot weld holes and drill. I'm using 1/4" grade 5 bolts, nuts, fender and lock washers for this install. Plenty of strength, at least as much as the original spot welds and removeable down the road when it comes time to do some repair work on the bed sides, header and tail gate. I also drilled the holes just a bit oversize so I'll have some wiggle room to line up all the angle strip to bed bolts later on this month. Here is the left side install. And here about half way through the right side install. Now I can't leave the box painted with rough edges from the first coat of primer so, a tape line is established using the embossing in the header and the bed sides. When done, I'll have a relatively straight paint line. I want to keep the black color low in the bed so its not such an obvious repair when looking at the truck. Kinda let them old blue coveralls shine when I'm standing back looking at the truck and can see into the top half of the bed area. A coat of primer next and then some black paint to top it off. I'll get back here when the paint is dry and the tape is off with some final pictures of todays work. [hr] This part of the job is done. Decent paint job, relatively straight lines, paint low in the box, everything protected for several more years. Next up is an exhaust heat shield to protect the bed wood from drying out and I need to sister in a strip of aluminum betwen the bed side connector back at the tailgate. 3 of the 9 bolt holes are a bit ate out so a sandwitch of metal underneath will give all the bed wood bolts and equal bite when bolted in.