Bed Fix?

[EdwinTheKid]

How would I go about straightening out my bed? I would like to to latch in on both sides and be square enough to fit a topper on in the future.

[Mike C]

I assume you are planning rust repair as well or just want to square it up? If it was mine, I would tack weld angle iron brace to bottom of inside of opposite bed side and make a "puller" that clamped to top of drivers side bedside and use a "pull" type ram on a port-power to bring the top in. The more bracing you do the better attaching all of the pieces you DO NOT want to move and pulling just the top. But you need to isolate that and pull from a big enough surface area to not impart localized bending/strectching.

[57taskforce]

I think I would start by cutting the weld at the bottom of the rear of the bedside and the rear most bed cross sill. That should help allow for more movement of the entire bedside. You’ll have to weld it back up when you get it right.

[mr48chev]

From the looks of it, I'd blow the whole bed apart, repair the floor and work my way up from there.

With the number of guys who have stopped and looked at the beat up pickup box trailer I have that's made out of a 68 long bed I know how hard good ones are to find. You just don't run out and snag a replacement bed all that easy anymore.

Iwas looking at the back of my 71 yesterday thinking that I am going to have to pull the side in straight, less than you have but still too noticable. Truck earned it's keep hauling firewood and what ever for most of it's life and needs some rehab.