Stepside bed refurbish

[Grit dog]

Wow, nice find! That bed is in great shape!
I too haven’t done any body work to a stepside, but I’d get a few good coats of paint on all the hidden areas where the fenders touch the bed side, including the hard to reach under the bed rail over the fenders. Then reattach with seam sealer out to the edge of exposed to view.
Except that’s a pretty clean line. I believe I’d endeavor to remove any exposed seam sealer rather than caulking it like a bath tub.
JMO.

 

[Fat 454]

It may only be on the beds that have a factory spare tyre carrier, however there should be a small OEM factory bracket that fills the roll top space on the front corner. I'll see is I can find one and post a pic, unless someone else has one.
They sometimes turn up on ebay as part of the tyre mount ..

 

[squaredeal91]

It may only be on the beds that have a factory spare tyre carrier, however there should be a small OEM factory bracket that fills the roll top space on the front corner. I'll see is I can find one and post a pic, unless someone else has one.
They sometimes turn up on ebay as part of the tyre mount ..

Interesting. I'd like to see what they are. Wish I could mount a spare on the side. my fender would have to be changed or id have to modify the existing one.

 

[bucket]

The beds without a side-mounted spare tire don't have any type of spacer brace up there.

I've never seen the brace in question though, as there weren't really many of those trucks in my area equipped like that.

 

[Novapwr]

First area to fix is this. question is..is this a factory tac weld? In picture #4 and is that buldge factory too? All 4 corners have it so it looks factory.

My 78 stepside bed has those exact welds. One is popped. As to that shape, 3 of mine are flat on top and perfectly round. The other is bent and the corner rounded like the pics and I know it was from the stupid ratchet straps I used to haul my brothers heavy street bike with one time. If I get a chance I'll take a couple pics of the ends for you. I've been thinking of ways to get that one corner nice and round again when I redo the truck.

 

[squaredeal91]

Ill post progress when I can because My transmission took a dump yesterday so I'm about to start a manual swap because I need my daily back. Maybe ill make a thread for that because ill probably ask a few questions and want pictures of linkage setup so I can do it right.