Question about bed mounting

[Niteshade]

For background, I am disassembling my 54's bed and have a question on how the front of the bed mounts. When I removed the wood floor it was sitting on a 2x4 and not mounted to the bedsides. The bedsides simply rested on the filler panel above the step. I know that isn't correct.

On one side of the bed there is L shaped bracket mounted to the bedside and it looks like the same holes exist on the other side but the bracket is gone. No problem to fab up another bracket, but is there a beam that mounts between these 2 brackets that carry the weight of the front on the bed? What is the height of this beam? If it is too short or tall the bed would not be level.

Thanks for the help.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[mr48chev]

I checked the assembly manual and there is nothing in it on the beds of the truck.

you might check the different vendors sites and the Mar-k site. http://www.mar-k.com/Catalog/catalog.aspx

Here this costs ten bucks but might be well worth the ten bucks. http://www.mar-k.com/Catalog/catalog.aspx

[_Ogre]

the bed on your 54 is the same bed up thru the 80s
other than the 2 bolts in the rear sill, the bed sides and front panel do not attach to the frame.
the bed sides are held up by the angle strip, running the length of your bed, sitting on the bed wood.
you will have 3 to 5 sheet metal cross sills, depending on the length of your bed, they go on the frame.
your bed wood lays across these sills and your bed angle strips are supported by bed wood.
there is a lot of bed installation information on the mar-k website
you can put your whole bed together without it being on the truck, complete with bed wood and sills installed
and set the whole assembly onto the truck frame, these pictures were taken 10 minutes apart.

[Niteshade]

Thanks for the answer, this is exactly what I needed to know and makes everything I have read to date now make sense.
Posted via Mobile Device