79+ Bedside to 78- Truck

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Hello, I'm not expert but I just replaced my 77's bedside with the round fuel cap to a newer bedside (with the square door that opens) and for me it was a pain and since I took a bunch of pictures I figured I'd make a write up to help those who might want to do this in the future so....enjoy.

WARNING: There are differences on the bed that need to be known before you work. 1) the indentation pattern on the inside of the bed is a little different but if it doesn't matter your good (check pictures 1 and 2). 2) The fuel filler and pipe are different on the new styles and need to be changed. Also on this, the gap on the bedside is different and will need to be addressed. (check picture 3). The tailgate mounts/brackets changed on the new bedsides so take them off your old bedside and transfer them over. They use the same bolts so that's easy. (picture 4, old is brown and new is blue)

First off, you need to unscrew you fuel filler pipe and take off your tailgate.

Second you need to take off your taillight and the plastic cluster that the lights are connected to. Take the sockets/bulbs and push/pull them through the hole in the bottom of the bedside so they don't get caught when you pull the bedside off.

Next you need to remove ALL of the bolts holding on your old bedside on. There are quite a few and if you miss one it still stays on. I learned that the hard way. Check pictures in the next post for bolt locations. I forgot to get a picture but at the front of the bed between the cab are 4 bolts.

At the back of the bed at the bottom of the last pillar it is spot welded. And at the VERY back of the bed where the end of the bedside hangs over, it is also spot welded. Make sure you have a torch or something to cut these because after my cutting tool died I had to use an air hammer.....needless to say it took a very long time to cut.

Next your ready to take off the bedside. If you got all of your bolts it should come off relatively easily. I missed this the first time and put quite a few dents banging the side with a hammer before I realized I missed some bolts. This was a two man project for me but I'm not a big strong guy and I didn't have access to any jacks so you might be able to move it by yourself.

Now you need to prep the bed. There is about an inch of bed where the seal was to the bedside. Mine was rusty so I sanded it down and sprayed it with primer. This doesn't really do anything but prevent rust but it could save you time with rust down the road.

On your new bedside, you need to scrape/sand off all of the caulking that is on it. This will prevent it from fitting well and be a pain to take off once the bedside it on.

Now get your 2nd man and fit the new bedside on your truck. While someone is holding (or a jack is holding the bedside up) start a bolt at the back and front of the bedside. It doesn't need to be tight but just enough to hold the bedside from falling.

Next bolt on the wheel-well bolts. If you wait to put these on last it won't line up. I did this and had to take all of the others off to get these on. Once they are on you can put all of the other bolts on and tighten them.

If you have a welder go ahead and spot weld the back of the bed back where it was before. I didn't have access when I put the bedside on but I had it welded later. I'm not sure if it needed it but if GM thought it was necessary, I guess they are right.

Run the taillight sockets back through and mount everything back.

Put your old tailgate brackets back on and put your tailgate back on.

You will need to caulk the bedside where it meets the bed so it won't leak. Also the gap caused by the filler pipe will need to be closed up somehow. My truck is getting RhinoLined so that will take care of that for me.

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Here is the post on the bolt locations.

[project 67 sub]

you could have just swapped a complete bed instead of the bedside, it would have been a lot easier and faster

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Originally Posted by project 67 sub

you could have just swapped a complete bed instead of the bedside, it would have been a lot easier and faster

If I did it would have to be either a 79 or 80 because they switched fuel tank sides in 81, the only reason the new bedside was from an 84 is because it had an axuillery tank. I did not want to add a tank to the driver side and looking for a complete bed in a range of two years is difficult plus I had no room for a complete bed. Overall it would have been easier but in my situation it wasn't.
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[y5mgisi]

Thanks for sharing! Thats some useful info!

[project 67 sub]

ahh ok