Question for Fleetside Owners

[Spitshineschwinn]

Is the front of your bed evenly spaced across the back of your cab, or does it stick out a bit further on Driver's/passenger's side?

[meter swinger]

Mines in an elec. shop getting wired so i can't measure it. This is the one peice of fitment ( next to the hood) that i dont like on these trucks. After the exhaust is done and i re-do the bed (at which point i will ditch the stock floor) i'm hoping to get that gap closer and straight. I dont think it will ever flow the way id like but i dont want to cut and weld on it.

Have you tried loosening the bolts to see if you can get it to move? Is the bed original or a redo? Maybe measure to see if its out of square.
Mine was a re-do when i got it and all out of whack. The PO re-drilled all the holes and used12" plank. All the cross sills look like swiss cheese. LOL
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[Spitshineschwinn]

Mine is about 3/4" over too far on the driver's side. I replaced the wood in the bed about 15 years ago thinking I would solve this problem. It came out the same, leading me to believe my bed is off square. Most of the Fleetside trucks I've seen up close seem to share this problem to some degree. My wood is in need of replacing again because I don't have a bed cover or shed to park it under. I'm thinking of going with a steel floor this time around. I would square up the bed while the wood is out, I'm even open to having the bed tack welded to the frame if the bolt holes won't line up properly. Any thoughts on this?

[OrrieG]

Sorry for the delay but posting from my phone is a pita. I looked at mine and it sits square (look at my build thread). I just reassembled it without the floor to fit the tailgate, etc. It has about 1" play in the bolt holes side to side and front to back so it could be mounted off center. Things to consider in your case.
- Is your cab centered? When I mounted mine I measured from the frame rail to the same point on each side of the sill to make sure, I could move my cab about 1.5" each way off center. Your cab can be off center and the front clip and hood will still align.
- Is the bed square? Measure from corner to corner at the top and bottom, they should ideally be within 1/16" of square.
- Are the offset washers aligned with the longitudinal (front to back) axis parallel with the frame? If they are rotated that could move the bed to one side.
- Have the cross rails or frame holes been rusted or closed in?
- Are the bed sides straight? When I installed mine I had to pull one side in about an inch were the inner fender mounts to get it to align with the cross rail bolt holes. This could warp the front ends or panel to cause an offset.
- Is the bottom of the front panel rusted out? That could allow movement.
- Are the sides vertical and square to the cross sills? The top and bottom can be square horizontally and the tops still tilted to one side making the top offset.

A little bit of each of the above could add up to your offset.

When you get ready to fix it I would NOT spot weld it to the frame. These trucks are designed to flex and move and over time the welds will break or the metal will fatigue and crack next to the weld. If you need to you can make the cross sill holes oblong to get the bed to align. Align it with the floor out, then install the floor, check alignment and drill the holes in the floor for the frame bolts.

Good luck, look at the post towards the end to see how I set mine up. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=552

[Spitshineschwinn]

I've spent the last two hours reading and viewing the pictures of your build - all I can say is Wow! The amount of fab work on your build (and quality of the work) is simply incredible! Your advice on all of the potential causes of my bed being out of line is very much appreciated, I will remove the old wood and examine all of them to see where the problem lies. I believe I will be able to get a lot closer to square than it is now. I'll also nix the idea of spot welding the bed to the frame. I look forward to following along on additional posts on your build thread. Your posts are not only educational but entertaining as well. Thanks again!

[OrrieG]

When I got home I looked at some more stuff. Mar-k has a bunch of technical articles on bed assembly too that I used for my info. http://www.mar-k.com/mar-k_technical_info.html

Thanks for the compliment on my build. I try to be complete. Usually not the only way to do something but because of my background I try to find the most "elegant" (in engineering terms) solutions, done inexpensively, with common tools. A lot of that comes from working with my Grandfather and Dad figuring out how to fix things with a few hand tools and an old stick welder.

You will figure it out, these were mass produced and built by regular guys that just had the benefit of better jigs to hold them in place when they bolted them together.