bed help

[oldman3]

Busy day and night, but I will try to finish up this tonight. After the bed and everything was installed, I turned to the splash apron area to see what I could do.

Pic 1 The apron on the left is a stock 54. Middle one is my modified one.
The one on the right is the stock 47-53.

Pic 2 The apron on top is the 54. Middle in my modified one. and the bottom one is the 47-53.

I took a spare 47-53 and worked it into the size I needed. You can see in pic 1 that I'm not using the brackets to hold it to the running board. I drilled holes in the flat part of running board and flat part of apron and bolted them together.

[oldman3]

Pic 1 shows my modified one installed on the truck. As you can see I made mine shorter to align with the bed and same curve as the bottom of the cab. This left the frame showing, so I made plates.

Pic 2 same shot, but with the plates I made to help cover the frame.

Jim if you have any questions let me know...Jim

[oldman3]

Jim, I forgot to throw in these measurements. I think the stock 54 apron is 3-3/4" to 4" high. Stock 47-53 apron is 6" high. My modified one is 5" high....Jim

[FarmerSid]

Not only are you helping crazyjim out but me too. Would you be able to post a picture of how close the front of your running board is to the front fender? Mines about 3/4" away on the front and hits the rear fender.

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Not only are you helping crazyjim out but me too. Would you be able to post a picture of how close the front of your running board is to the front fender? Mines about 3/4" away on the front and hits the rear fender.

Sid, glad I can be of help. I modified the front of my boards so no help there. I've seen pickups with as little as 1/2" up to about 1" or better. I'm showing two pics of mine, if you want more info look at my build on page 11 post #253 for how I did mine...Jim

[FarmerSid]

Thanks Jim! Will check out your build thread.

[Advanced Design]

Outstanding information on the bed Jim! I didn't realize there was a change on the 54. Learning so much here.

Your extended running board looks good. The second picture looks like the beading extended into to the new area? Does it?

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Outstanding information on the bed Jim! I didn't realize there was a change on the 54. Learning so much here.

Your extended running board looks good. The second picture looks like the beading extended into to the new area? Does it?

Yes, the extensions where made out of metal, welded in place and finished off with filler, made it look like it came that way. Don't have a close up of it finished, will see about taking one and posting...Jim

[FarmerSid]

Hey Jim, did you run the piece of new angle iron down the entire length of the running board?

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Hey Jim, did you run the piece of new angle iron down the entire length of the running board?

Sid, yes I did...Jim