Bangarang

here she is before I had a chance to do much to it.
I got hold of this old lady very cheap from a friend. The bed had quite a bit of damage, and I stumbled upon a replacement bed for only $300, so I thought it might be a good fix. So not too long ago, I offered some friends from church a free lunch on a Saturday, and they actually showed up!


is it possible this thing was welded on?
This particular truck was equipped with the Goose-neck Trailer hauling package, so the first thing we did (after soaking all the bolts we could find in penetrating oil the previous night) was to get the ball off of the middle of the bed. This is what took the longest and caused the most frustration over anything else that day! The Ball would just not come loose. We checked for welds, but it seemed the nut and a lock washer was all that was holding it on ...for the last 20 years.


big hole with a lot of rust
With the bed liner off, we could see How much the bed had rusted. With this kind of set-up, water came in around the Ball, and did it's damage. This proved to be a blessing in disguise however, because it allowed us to remove the bed without taking the ball off. All we had to do was lift the bed. We had much more room to work with leverage getting the Ball off later.


these proved to be not so tough
6 of these bolts hold the bed on. They unscrew from the top. Don't try removing the bolts underneath.


removing the screws holding the fill pipe
These simple screws had to be removed but there is also a PIPE CLAMP that holds the hose to the bed that needs to be removed. Thanks goes out to YouTube video's for the tutorials telling me about this!


it's seen better days
We got the bed off easily enough, I had seven guys besides myself to lend a hand. A lot of this bed is Fiberglass, so it wasn't as heavy as you might think. Also, you can see the extent of the rust here.


lots of wear and tear on the old bed



waiting for her new home
here's the new (used) bed I found 100 miles away for $300. It's off of a '98. I think it would have cost me more than that to fix all of the problems with the old bed.


how are we gonna get that stupid Goose-Neck Ball off?
This is quite a problem. It won't budge!


having the right tools for the job can not be emphasized enough
A buddy showed up with a 4 Foot Pipe Wrench. With this and a cheater-bar we could put two guys on it, and get the leverage we needed with the bed off. The ball slowly gave way ...finally!

Bangarang

20 years of filth
A real enthusiast would have powder coated the frame at this point, but we settled for an air hose and a power wash. Took about an hour to get all of that stuff off of there.



adding a few other things
We got some new Side Mirrors, Bug Shield and the Brush Guard on.


looking good but still a ways to go

Here she is with my brand new Toyo All Terrain 285/70/17's. Also got some new Coil Packs and Plugs in her. I think I'm ready to take her to the Body Shop. The thing is, I spent all my money. The Body Shop will have to wait a bit.

I'm thinking of changing the grey bottom rocker panel color to Black, (extending down the length of the bed, of course) and re-painting all the black trim in new black paint. Although I'm not sure how to visualize it. Any of you photo-shop guys want to show me how that might look?

I would also like to find some BushWacker type fender flares, (pocket hole?) but I can't seem to find them for the flare-side truck. I'd appreciate any help with that one cause I'm not sure how that's gonna work itself out.

Thanks for looking!

Firerunner

iTrader: (3)

Nice work!

Not my best photo-shop work, but it will give you an idea anyway

mandingo32

Awesome job man. Where you at in Florida? Not too many of us floating around here...

Bangarang

on the North West bank of Lake Okeechobee!
(... anybody wanna buy an old stepside bed? lol)

Bangarang

thank you so much!
I think I like the black! If I go that way I can see I need to paint the bumper too.

Bangarang

Thanks for the visual! It's been almost a year, and I've posted the results elsewhere but wanted to show how the photoshop efforts helped the process.

Firerunner

iTrader: (3)

Damn, that looks NICE!

ANT99F150

What size are the wheels?

Bangarang

17" Pacers (-12 offset) Tires are Toyo AT's - 285/70/17's