Questions about new 1967 gmc 1 ton bed

[Martino patina]

Hello everyone I'm new so I hope I'm posting in the correct area. I bought a gmc 1 ton 1967 9 ft bed with dealer installed low profile utility tool boxes and I want to rebuild the bed. The question I ran into is my bed angle rails that run front to back on the bed sides they appear to be original to the truck but they are 1/8th thick 2 inch by 2 inch angle iron and I can't find any pictures of a similar bed they all have the fancy bent 18 guage stainless or painted side angle strips. Is this original price has it beenessed with I want to know what to put back to make factory correct

[mongocanfly]

almost the right section...67-72 section is best..
welcome...
post up some pics of what your referring to and itll be easier to give an opinon

[Martino patina]

Ok and thank you for the advice I will post there from now on I will post pics when I get home at 11. It's very confusing I can see why they would have use regular angle iron back then but maybe that's how the 9 ft bedside came

[Martino patina]

This is the best one I have right now will have better ones later

[mongocanfly]

ok I guess your meaning they replaced the fenders with tool boxes...very common back in the day...im guessing it looks something like this...

[Martino patina]

Yes very similar to that but the inside of the bed is a metal sheet and the sheet is laying on top of angle iron I described earlier but where the angle iron bolts to the bedsides the bolts look original and the rust patern on the angle iron and the bed sides coinside with one another leading me to believe the factory used angle iron and later someone snot welded this plate to the angle and it use to be a wood bed. Unless I'm way off par

[Getter-Done]

Welcome to the forum.
Awesome looking truck.
What is your Wheel Base measurement?
Is yours 133' Wb or 157" wb?

[Martino patina]

Thank you I'm not sure of the wheel base I will have to look just got this truck from another member on this forum and have had 4 c10s in the past and I finally found the one I'm gonna have forever.

[special-K]

Your truck is almost a twin to another member's truck here. Is the grille painted body color by chance?

The truck will have 133" WB being it is a C3500 pickup. The bed is factory, but modified by installing the "bins in place of fenders" as well as replacing the wood bed floor with steel plate. So as far as the floor is concerned, you are not looking at the factory arrangement. The factory angle strips for the floor would be stamped steel.

[Martino patina]

The member you are referring to sold me this truck about a week or two ago and yes the grill is body color. I am not saying you are wrong in any way I've always seen the stamp steel angle strips as well but these angle iron strips seem to have been on there from the start or a couple years after it was new. The ageing and rot and bolts all have the same rot pattern as each other it's identical and I don't think it would be like that if the angle strips where changed way later they would look to be in better shape then the bedsides. Was just thinking maybe they didbt have the stamped angles for a 9ft bed

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Martino patina

The member you are referring to sold me this truck about a week or two ago and yes the grill is body color. I am not saying you are wrong in any way I've always seen the stamp steel angle strips as well but these angle iron strips seem to have been on there from the start or a couple years after it was new. The ageing and rot and bolts all have the same rot pattern as each other it's identical and I don't think it would be like that if the angle strips where changed way later they would look to be in better shape then the bedsides. Was just thinking maybe they didbt have the stamped angles for a 9ft bed

The angle strips would have been the same for all trucks. Nothing like that from the factory. Someone has added the angle iron and metal floor. It may have been done early in it's life and that might explain the uniform pitting.....

LockDoc

[Martino patina]

Ok then that makes sense probably was done very early on. Do you happen to know if the three stamped lines or ribbs in the bedside are the same length for 6 8 and 9 ft bedsides I need patch panel material and would rather pay for a six foot bed side if possible

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Martino patina

Ok then that makes sense probably was done very early on. Do you happen to know if the three stamped lines or ribbs in the bedside are the same length for 6 8 and 9 ft bedsides I need patch panel material and would rather pay for a six foot bed side if possible

I don't know about the ribs. Hopefully someone will chime in on that...

LockDoc

[cypressbog]

You might want to look under the bed to see if they installed the steel plate on top of the factory wood. A previous owner did that to mine.

If your interested, I have a spare 9 foot bed in very reasonable shape and would sell you the almost impossible to find 9 foot only side steps. They're not cheep, but also not found everywhere.

[Martino patina]

My personal email is jlp0602@gmail.com send me your number and I will call about your bedsides thank you also bit sadly there is no wood under my steel

[special-K]

I didn't realize the truck was for sale. That angle may have been added when new as part of the side bins set-up. Or, they were found to be necessary once the truck got used. That's a lot of weight to hang on sheet metal angles. The plates you see on the inside of the bedside were part of the side bin installation as well. If the wood is gone, that originally was there, then the angles were installed as part of the floor change. The factory angle strips would have aallowed for a 3/4" floor and now yours is what, 3/16"?

If you are keeping the side bins you'll have no need for the steps. Most installations eliminated those. Your truck is the only one I've seen with them left on. Is it the whole step or are they cut? I have had several sets of new take off steps and fenders from trucks that got this upfit when new.

[Martino patina]

Yes luckely i found steve on cl with the truck for sale I have always wanted a utility body but had no luck finding one till now. I am doing a minimal structural restoration only fixing rot in spots that will weaken the stucture. I want to keep all the original patina and hide all the work I do so it looks like it does now just no rot between the bedside and boxes. Fix all the holes and make it look like it didn't need it done. Where should I start a build thread on this truck

[Martino patina]

And yes to answer your question the dealer installed the boxes and then cut the steps to fit and ancored them to the boxes and the bed pretty cool Fab job they did

[special-K]

Start the thread in 67-72 trucks forum. There is a build thread sub-forum. If you want, I can report this thread to the staff so they can move it to that forum, the general one, not build threads. I think members who knew this truck would want to read this thread and most don't venture out