She Ain’t Purty … Yet:
Bed!

Day 22:

Interesting challenge of the day was:

“Why is there a 2-1/2″ opening where the 2-7/8″ rear cross sill goes?”

Answer Part I:

A section of steel plate extended down from the bed sides’ post supports. After a call to the parts supplier which yielded no additional information, the only reason I could see for these plates was to prevent the rear cross sill from being attached.

Answer Part II:

Heavy Duty 10,000 RPM Milwaukee No. 6148-6, 4-1/2″ Sander / Grinder with 1/16″ thick, 7/8″ arbor AvantiPRO Metal CutOff discs a thrownin’ sparks up to the ceiling in a fiery orgy of steel obliterating goodness.

Procedure recap:

1) Measure carefully
2) Seek additional information
3) Assess options
4) Apply brute force

With that done, Step 1 was to assemble the bed.

Front, sides and four cross sills:

Step 2 Drive truck under the bed and tighten eight 3/8″ carriage bolts with flat washers, lock washers and nuts.

I expect the thicker and more numerous mounting bolts will be an improvement over the four 1/4″ carriage bolts I removed to take off the original bed. Eight 3/8″ bolts provide a total of 3″ of steel for sheer strength, whereas four 1/4″ bolts provided only a total  1″ of steel

Step 3 was to bolt on the rear fenders (done last to minimize the weight lifting when attaching the bed).

What would have been the easy step 4 – installing the tail, backup, side marker and license plate lights became complicated because one of the previous owners welded a non-standard light fixture inside the tail light housing.

Instead of cutting the wires on the new wiring harness and ‘making it work’ I ordered new light assemblies: housings, gaskets, bulbs, nuts, screws, &c to be delivered within a few days.

She ain’t purty yet, but she’s coming along real nice!