Bed Removal

[Oldblue]

Hi all,

I am starting the process of removing my bed of my 84 swb fleetside. I recently got the truck and starting the restore. Unfortunately I inherited some stripped square holes in the bed. How did anyone fix the square holes? I have heard some people say they didn't go back with carriage bolts to make it easy for removal if they had to do it again. I also figure i could go the fab route, but wanted to hear everyone's advice first.

PS if this has been answered I didn't find so please point me to the link,

Thanks

[kcwis]

We cut out pieces from a donor bed and welded them in the rounded out holes,,thinking of using lock washers instead of lock nuts when re-assembling.

[Oldblue]

Thanks for the response

I was thinking of using lock washers instead of the fab work.

Has anyone done lock washers on the bed and have feedback?

 My only worry with that is the bed possibly sliding around. I have 3 rounds bolts, but 1 of them is good at each location(front left,front right,left rear,right rear, so I believe it would hold fine. I know I could just weld in a new piece, step drill and file too. Unfortunately I haven't welded in like 13 years and I was never that good....so I gotta buy the gear and relearn . I guess either way I want to relearn.

[GMCMedic]

https://www.fastenal.com/products/details/11103151?r=~|categoryl1:%22600000%20Fasteners%22|~%20~|categoryl2:%22600089%20Washers%22|~%20~|categoryl3:%22604555%20Square%20Washers%22|~%20~|sattr02:^1/2%22$|~

I ordered these and welded them in place. The carriage bolt covers them.

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[Oldblue]

I like that idear. Thanks! I can weld these in place so it is uniform all over. Can you post some pictures if you have them. I'd like to see the bolt height and how your bed looks with them.

[GMCMedic]

For whatever reason i didnt take pictures of that step and the plastic bedliner is already back in but I remember looking at them and thinking nobody would ever notice the difference. Those washers are pretty thin.

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[Oldblue]

Ok cool that sounds good enough for me. I'm going to spray in a bed liner so they'll be sealed over either way.

[srozell]

Nice, GMCMedic. Thank's for posting that. I would have fabbed some for my next project, I didn't even know  you could buy those.