FLiPinoy916

So I bought a bed extender from Craigslist for pretty much pennies ($30), it was very dirty as the guy left it outside for about a year. I disassembled the whole thing, wet sanded the bars, cleaned it up, and plasti dipped it and looks sweet.
Here is where the problem started. It was designed for a 04-08 F 150 and I have a 2012 Super crew. I Found a super cheap fix to make it fit. I also spent the time to black it out with some plasti dip but that's optional.

BEFORE




AFTER



So I went to home depot and spent around $1.48 to make this retro fit to much truck. The bolts would not latch on completely because the head was rounded and prevented it from locking in. I had to shave down (used a drummel) the rounded end a bit shown in the picture below to have it slide all the way down and lock.

Left side rounded right side shaved



Bolt prior to shaving not locking all the way through, only half way down



Bolt after shaving, latching on, locking in place.




Bolt on side of truck


A look at it from the inside with the tail light off using another nut to lock in place

FL5OVE

Good stuff! I want a bed extender so friggin bad. I'll have to keep this in mind if I come across a deal like you did.

FLiPinoy916

You know I wasn't really a fan of them until recently when I bought a kayak (I'm a beginner) and the end stuck out a bit with the tailgate down. That's when I thought, damn an extender would be nice. Now I've seen tons of them on CL for around $50, $85, $100 an so on. I like th challenge of a budget and wanted to stay below $100. Unfortunately all the ones I've seen are missing the hardware cause they forget to take them off the truck when selling them. I priced the mounting brackets and kits, it's a two pice and they go for around $80-$95 which would of brought me back over $100. Even then it's decent deal being that these things go for $200+ dollars. Keep searching you'll get one. I was eyeing one for $50 and $85 for a few weeks and came across this one for $30 so I was happy. Good luck on your search.