Stepside bed - one side leans

[Hair]

1971 GMC short stepside - New wood installed, bed all back together, everything straight, and square, and level, all bolted down. Only problem is, when I put on the tailgate the passenger side is leaning outward at the top, so I got to push in on it hard to bring it in to enable the tailgate latches to fit into one another so the tail gate can shut. Surely others have had this issue before... my question is how do you fix it? I was thinking to hook a come-along to it and try to bend it inward, but thought I'd ask to see if there's a better way, or if that would even work. Note: It also had this issue before I ever took it loose and put the wood in it, I thought once I put the wood in and squared up everything it might go away,,, nope. That rear fender had to have a lot of sheet metal patching done, I 'm thinking maybe it could be twisted and causing the bedside to lean out now, but that's just a guess. It's out about 1/2", at the top. Any advice appreciated.

[Hair]

So, I'm alone on this one? I figured this would be a common thing. Well, I'm fixing to loosen the bolts on the bedsides up front where they bolt to the bed front, then I'm going to stick some wood posts in the stake pockets in the rear and put a cum-a-long across them and try to bend them inward and release and inward and release etc. until the top measures the same as the bottom, then tighten up the bolts and see if that will work. But nothing ever turns out to be as easy as planned, even if the top and bottom measure the same, it still has to be square too. [___] We will see.

[raggedjim]

Okay, I'll take a stab at it, but you probably won't like the answer.

Mine was kinda the same way. At the back by the crossmember there are a couple of bolts that mount the bedside rears to the crossmember. There's also a weld on the crossmember. If you loosen the bolts and cut the weld you can move it anywhere you want it.

If your truck is painted you may not want to cut the weld but loosening those bolts will help.

Good luck, Rg

[kaycee]

Is your tail gate straight ? lay it on a flat floor or bench. Or you can take a chunk of wood 2x4 and put it on the drivers side between the gate and bedside.hold the gate and push in on the top of passenger.side may be able to tweak it in some, that is if it’s still in build mode and not painted.

[kaycee]

Put a chunk of wood in like this