Bed Wood replacement - a one man job

[jeffahart]

When I was trying to decide what color to paint my bed wood strips I perused bed wood threads for pics a few months ago to see what I liked; I noticed a few questions regarding whether the project was a one man job, and does the bed need to be removed.

So I decided to post how I did it myself with no bed removal. Just for the guys who are not sure if they are biting off too much, and maybe give them a go nudge. If you got a truck you use and need a bed wood replacement. It is a one man job and you can do it. Nothing really technical here or hard. Just a bit of encouragement since I just completed the project and it’s on my mind.
I purchased my bed wood from Classic Trucks, it’s Yellow Pine and came cut and dadoed, but did not have the holes drilled. I paid around $250 plus shipping. I good deal, it’s good wood and looks to be B-better. No knots, cupping or cracked ends.

I’ll make three posts, removal, prep, and install. I’m skipping the finish. I’ll put my two cents on that in a different thread.

Removing the Bed Wood:

I only got under the truck a couple times and once was to retrieve a dropped tool, retrieving dropped tools when you’re up in the bed is a pain(we'll fix that problem too).

Here's the process; you only need you! I did this on a long bed fleet, so if you have a step side you may not be able to rely on the sill to fender attachment to hold the rear end stable, but it should not be a problem anyway.
Work from inside the bed. Remove the old wood by starting at one side and work your way to the other. The first board will be the hardest.
Forget getting under there and spraying break free or whatever else, no need, you're going to destroy the bolts anyway.
Use a sawzall(reciprocating saw) and a 6" torch blade. I don't like grinding, too much sparks and it takes too long.
Once you get the first board busted out, you can get the blade between the wood and bed strip. The torch blade zips through those little bolts in about two seconds. If the bolt head spins freely, then clamp the head with vice grips then saw it off. I used two blades and only swapped to a second blade near the end, your results may vary based on your ability to muscle the saw and spread the wear throughout the length of the blade. Your arms and back will get exercise. You might want to consider a dust mask if you are sensitive to dust. I'm not, I use saline nasal spray at the end of a work day. But use your good judgment. The wood is old and a lot of old crap comes loose when you start the demo.

If you get to an area at the front of the bed and you can't control the saw and are worried about the woodpecker effect, then clamp the bolt head and reach underneath with your impact and zip it off. It will probably bust in half and not unthread. You could remove all the bolts using this reach under method, I prefer the sawzall, it’s easier.
If you drop your vice grips or hammer or chisel or any other tool, no need to get out of the bed. Get a telescopic magnet in the bed with you. You can reach down and go go gadget with the extended magnet.

As you move from one side to the other and get a few boards and strips out, you will be able to stand on the cross sills. If your legs are long enough, you can stand on the ground and straddle the cross sills. Once you can stand where the wood was removed the job becomes much easier! I'm just tall enough I could straddle the sills, and the truck has 4" lift.
Keep the cross sills in place while you are working. The bed will stay in place in the rear because the rear cross sill is attached to the bed fender. But the bed will dip a bit in the front when the wood is removed. If you’re worried the bed front will hit the cab, stuff a moving blanket in between them, I did not and had no issues.
Once the wood is removed cut a piece of 2x4 and run it in place of the front cross sill, and stack two smaller pieces on the ends. Clamp the wood to the frame. Then you can remove the sills. I kept the rear one attached to the fender in place. I did not paint my sills or the frame. They looked pretty good, so they were left as is.

Now to clean up the bed and prep for installation.


The bed wood to be removed


Sawzall the bolts off


You can reach under to get the bolts with an impact also. You may need to vice grip bolts you sawzall also, if they are free spinning.


wood coming out with bed wood strips.


Wood out , I left in the cross sill at the rear of the wheel well. It's attached to the inner well, so I left it in place. 2x4 holds up the front.