8'fleetside bed dissasembly

[gmc1971harwich]

hey guys im trying to take the dents out of my bed particularly the bed sides and front header panel, i have an 8 ft. fleetside bed off of a 70. does this bed just unbolt or are the bed sides welded to the inner walls of the box? it would be alot easier to unbolt the bedside like it was a fender and then do the bodywork.

[Livrat]

There are a couple of welds on each side near the floor by the tailgate you will have to cut.. but all the rest unbolts...
A little hint on all the bolts on the floor.. DO NOT unbolt them.. use a 1/2" drive 6 point socket and ratchet, tighten up the nuts till they snap off.. It will save you hours of grief.. (some will still spin and you will have to cut them off)
Its less time consuming to break em off and buy new ones over trying to loosen and remove.. they will all just end up spinning in the holes.. and frustrate you to no end... It will end up taking up most of a day dissasembling it..

[gcsupraman]

Originally Posted by Livrat

There are a couple of welds on each side near the floor by the tailgate you will have to cut.. but all the rest unbolts...
A little hint on all the bolts on the floor.. DO NOT unbolt them.. use a 1/2" drive 6 point socket and ratchet, tighten up the nuts till they snap off.. It will save you hours of grief.. (some will still spin and you will have to cut them off)
Its less time consuming to break em off and buy new ones over trying to loosen and remove.. they will all just end up spinning in the holes.. and frustrate you to no end... It will end up taking up most of a day dissasembling it..

I just did this on my truck three weeks ago. I used a wrench or air ratchet on the first side and they will all just spun which forced me to grind all the heads off and punch them out. On the other side I used an impact gun and had a friend push down on the bolt with his hand in a glove and not a single one spun.

As stated above, just a small weld that can easily be grinded.

-Greg

[red69ss]

I drilled the heads out and off the carriage bolts from the top and punched them out ,this made it much easier than trying to grind them from the bottum and caused no damage.

[gmc1971harwich]

i cant seem to find a thread on here about the bed disassembly process with photos, does anybody know if theres a thread on here for that?

[bopper_702]

Originally Posted by Livrat

There are a couple of welds on each side near the floor by the tailgate you will have to cut.. but all the rest unbolts...
A little hint on all the bolts on the floor.. DO NOT unbolt them.. use a 1/2" drive 6 point socket and ratchet, tighten up the nuts till they snap off.. It will save you hours of grief.. (some will still spin and you will have to cut them off)
Its less time consuming to break em off and buy new ones over trying to loosen and remove.. they will all just end up spinning in the holes.. and frustrate you to no end... It will end up taking up most of a day dissasembling it..

i love the darn search bar... i been going at it with my bed for 3 days straight and not one bolt off yet. super old post but thank you my friends. lol
time to fffff some bolts up lol

[bopper_702]

Originally Posted by gcsupraman

I just did this on my truck three weeks ago. I used a wrench or air ratchet on the first side and they will all just spun which forced me to grind all the heads off and punch them out. On the other side I used an impact gun and had a friend push down on the bolt with his hand in a glove and not a single one spun.

As stated above, just a small weld that can easily be grinded.

-Greg

ima try this as well if the first one dont come out. im breaking em

[mike16]

Originally Posted by red69ss

I drilled the heads out and off the carriage bolts from the top and punched them out ,this made it much easier than trying to grind them from the bottum and caused no damage.

Yes! Exactly! dont wrench or grind them all day long. drill them out. much easier and mor forgiving of the parts you want to save.

By the way... a quart of linseed oil covers the area of a wooden bed exacly and every six month.

Thats why British ships lasted , in some cases for over a hundred years in service.

also..... if your wood is soaked in linseed oil the splinters will not cause infection.