Bedless!

[Russell]

After a day of hard work I got my bed off, and my truck street legal

Just gotta put the rest of my rear bumper brackets on, then tie the electrical up to them that is dangling down, and find some way to reinforce my mudflaps (legal requirement to driving without a bed, they'll bend right away if they get any wind against them though...)

[Russell]

I also installed a set of bumperettes up front, yes I know, my bumper is crooked, thats becuase the driver's side is slightly bent down, it only is straight when the bottom is bolted up. I've only got the tops bolted up as I gotta MiG a small nut to the back of the bottoms so the bolt has something to grab onto other than a small peice of metal (strips right out due to the force of the stripped bumper)

Looks much gooder if you ask me, it was too empty and the bumper didn't stick out enough before

[elwood]

Whats going on with the bed? Why did it come off? I like those lights, even hooked up to the trailer plug!:p

[Russell]

I'm gonna repair the bedsides, and find a new bed floor. Also gonna clean up the frame while I have it off. Seems I have a bigger problem to contend with first though, my engine started acting up today...

[Joey-D]

Just remember you have no weight back there, I drove my truck with no bed for a couple days while I replaced the cab corners. I could fishtail a fullsize under powered truck with 35 inch tires and 3.42 gears around anything. I drove to the muffler shop in the wind, that was an adventure. I'm just glad I didn't come across any rain or emergency braking, that think would have flip in an instance.

[N2TRUX]

That looks pretty cool. Your making hreat progress. Just think now you can honestly say your truck has 70% less rust than before...:p

[Matt_305]

Nice work man, just wondering,how hard is it to take off a box?

[Russell]

Joey -- I figured that out pretty quickly! The first time I accelerated off a red light beside a little ricer taught me a quick lesson in my new traction abilities :P Probally looked pretty cool to the little ricer seeing a fullsize pickup do a complete doughnut in the middle of the road, lol!

Thanks for the encouragement N2TRUX! Coming from you, that means a lot to me! And trust me, I've been telling all my buddies that I got rid of like half my rust this weekend -- They have no clue that I pulled the bed, I'm looking forward to the reactions on their faces when they see me pull into the school like this, lol!

Matt -- It really isn't that tough to do. Just gotta take out 8 bolts (in my case, grind out 8 bolts), take the wiring out of the tailights, and free the fuel filler necks. The toughest part for me was getting those bolts out of the bed becuase I have a bobcat to lift the bed off with. You can get it off with two decently sized guys though

[Joey-D]

Yeah when I removed my box, I had to cut probaly 6 of the 8 bolts out. I picked up the box corner by corner and tied it to the rafters in the garage then drove out. It worked great until I had to figure out how to get the box out of mid air by myself in the garage before my folks came home. lol

[Prerunner1982]

at one point i had my truck with no bed, pulling a trailer with my "new" bed and my old bed.. looked rather funny.....

[Matt_305]

Alright man, thanks for the info.