Bed floor replacement

[DatKat933]

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions to make life easier replacing a bed floor? I have a new (to me) bed floor but hoping to make it as easy as possible since replacing one of the bed sides a couple years ago was a pain. Thank you for any help!

 

[Fat 454]

Hi - some pics / photos would help so we can see what you have in front of you, and what parts you have. Taking a bed apart is relatively straightforward. Assume you have a steel bed floor, not wood ? All the parts unbolt, however there are also some welds between the rear floor cross member and the bedsides at the tailgate / rear light area that need to be removed / separated before the bed sides come off the floor. If you have already removed a bed side you will know what I'm talking about.
If the "new" bed is a used one, I would get it blasted and painted underneath before using it. Don't powder coat or use a body raptor coat, as that just allows water to creep under and create large rust patches. Zinc primer and regular paint is much better ( but still needs normal maintenance over time ).
Typically loosely bolt everything together before final tightening, so that you get all the alignment as you want it.
It would be easier to assemble the bed on a dolly / welding table ( other tall rigid frame ) rather than on the truck if you have the option, as it is a bit of a pain to get to everything when mounted. A solid wooden dolly can be built reasonably cheaply.
You can make up a cheap wooden cross frame from 4 lengths of 2x4, a couple of straps and 4 x cleats to lift the whole bed on and off the truck using an engine hoist.
Don't forget to disconnect your wiring and the fuel filler. Good luck ...

 

[TotalyHucked]

A few buddies to lift it up and some sawhorses does wonders. I used a couple wheels and tires in the bed to offset the weight as I pulled each bedside off/put them back on (I cheated and used the forklift at work, so I did it all myself when I put in our wide tub floor and tubs lol)

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[Grit dog]

Make yourself a dolly if you don’t have a forklift like ^^^. I used scrap decking and Amazon casters so it was only like $25 to build. But it was a HUGE benefit when redoing the 86.

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[DatKat933]

Hi - some pics / photos would help so we can see what you have in front of you, and what parts you have. Taking a bed apart is relatively straightforward. Assume you have a steel bed floor, not wood ? All the parts unbolt, however there are also some welds between the rear floor cross member and the bedsides at the tailgate / rear light area that need to be removed / separated before the bed sides come off the floor. If you have already removed a bed side you will know what I'm talking about.
If the "new" bed is a used one, I would get it blasted and painted underneath before using it. Don't powder coat or use a body raptor coat, as that just allows water to creep under and create large rust patches. Zinc primer and regular paint is much better ( but still needs normal maintenance over time ).
Typically loosely bolt everything together before final tightening, so that you get all the alignment as you want it.
It would be easier to assemble the bed on a dolly / welding table ( other tall rigid frame ) rather than on the truck if you have the option, as it is a bit of a pain to get to everything when mounted. A solid wooden dolly can be built reasonably cheaply.
You can make up a cheap wooden cross frame from 4 lengths of 2x4, a couple of straps and 4 x cleats to lift the whole bed on and off the truck using an engine hoist.
Don't forget to disconnect your wiring and the fuel filler. Good luck ...

Its just a standard steel bed floor. I've replaced one bedside on the "new" bed I purchased. I recently got a bed floor to replace the rusting out bed floor in the one currently on the truck. I was hoping to disassemble the bed while the floor remained on the truck, so i could keep the old floor bolted down and remove the sides and eventually the front, but would that make it more difficult?

 

[xm20k]

You won't be able to get to the bolts at the bulkhead behind the cab unless you unbolt it and slide it rearward 8"-12". If you look at Hucks pic in post #3 you'll see the bolts in the lower left of the pic that are hidden behind the cab.

 

[DatKat933]

Ya thats what I was planning to do was unbolt the floor after the sides were off, slide it back then unbolt the front. As some have mentioned using sawhorses or some kind of rack, I was hoping to use the truck itself as a stand. Im working on the truck in a small garage so I dont have much room to work with. Plus living in Washington, it will be 72 and sunny today and tomorrow it might be 55 and pouring down rain.

 

[DatKat933]

I managed to pull off this project today. For anyone looking for this info later, the process I went through is below. Mind you it might not be the best process, but it did work.

-Remove the tailgate, tail lights and pull the wires out of the taillight pockets.

- Remove the 8 bolts connecting the bed floor to the frame. There will be 4 bolts in the rear and 4 in the front of the bed. You will need to remove the nuts from the bottom side of the bed and bolts pushed through from the bottom.

- unbolt the rear section of the bed side and wheel well. Multiple hidden bolts around the corner post of the bed. There are also atleast 4 spot welds. 2 connecting the bed post to the bed floor and 2 behind the tailgate hinge. These will need to be ground off or cut with a cold chisel.

- Slide the bed back to the rear of the frame to make room to unbolt the front of the bed.

- Unbolt the front of the bed. There will also be atleast 1 hidden bolt on the inside of the bedside, underneath the bed floor.

- Once completely unbolted and welds ground through, wiggle the bed side off the floor. Near the rear corner post, there is a small slit on the front side of the post where a thin part of the bed side slips in. This can be tough to get free, so consider using a rubber mallet to tap it out.

- Once one side is off, repeat the same process for the opposite side.

- With both bed sides off, I used 2 2x6's as ramps to slide the bed floor off the truck.

- Once on the ground I removed the bed front panel and both wheel wells. These are pretty self explanatory, just undo the bolts and work them off if there is a sealent like mine had. The wheel wells may have been easier removing while the bed was still on the truck.


Overall the removal process took me about 3 hours. I had some issues with grinding the welds. It could be done quicker with a thinner grinding wheel than i started using. When I switched to a thin wheel it cut through quickly. This CAN be a one person job, but life would have been alot easier if I had a second person. This same process can be used for general bed disassembly, but I would recommend, if you have the room, remove the bed as a whole first then disassemble on sawhorses or a makeshift stand.

If I missed a step or two, I apologize, just trying to type it out by memory.

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