Wood bed ?

[68wannabe]

OK so on the front bed panel for a wood bed, there's large and small holes drilled in the bottom lip. Are the small holes for the steel strip hold down bolt and the large holes for the wood hold down bolt? Thanks in advance.

[68wannabe]

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[FirstOwner69]

My front panel (Mar-K) only has one hole size. No bolts, other than the those in the front corners, go through the ends of the wood and through the underlying lip. The panel end bolts in the steel strips and at the front corners are the only bolts that attach to the lip. These are 5/16". The other bolts through the strips are 1/4" except where they intersect the wheel wells.

[davepl]

I'm only aware of the small holes in the outermost boards, everything else is held down with the edge strips, except for the "cam bolts".

I don't know the right name for what I call the "cam bolts" but the head/washer is off-center so that you can adjust the location of that board by rotating the bolt head. They boards are normally recessed for that.

[SS Tim]

Agree for the most part the factory wood is clamped by the metal strips. This allows for the expansion and contractions without tearing up the wood. The through bolt washers are off center punched as an anti-rotation measure.

How about posting a picture? It could be your part has been modified at some point.

[davepl]

Originally Posted by SS Tim

The through bolt washers are off center punched as an anti-rotation measure.

Can you explain more? I used them as a mechanism for aligning the bed left-right and fore-aft and so that I could line it up with the holes.

What do you mean by "anti-rotation" feature? Like instead of a lock washer?

[SS Tim]

Since the washer's square punched hole is off center, the washer cannot rotate much in it's recess as the bolt it being tightened down clamping the bed to the chassis.

Basically it does the same job as a carriage bolt alone without depending on a very small tightly fitted hole (in the wood) for the bolt shank.

They needed a large washer to prevent pull through, the off center is an elegant solution to prevent bolt rotation during assembly and service operations.

[88Stanger]

good info.

[68wannabe]

Brand new bed from Early Classic. There's a large hole and a smaller hole on the bottom front bed panel lip where the wood sits. What do you guys think?

[FirstOwner69]

Originally Posted by 68wannabe

Brand new bed from Early Classic. There's a large hole and a smaller hole on the bottom front bed panel lip where the wood sits. What do you guys think?

As I said in my post above, the Mar-K panel I bought has only one set of holes. They are like the larger ones. I just checked my GM original and it also has one set of large holes. However, your picture makes me think one or both of the first 2 panels I bought (both imported) may have had the 2 sets of holes. I returned both imports since I couldn't get the side holes to line up with the bed side holes. The Mar-K fits perfectly. The next question will be if the large holes in yours are positioned properly!