As originally installed, the bed wood on the platform was drilled through for a carriage bolt in eight locations. This should be on devestechnet.com. These bolts are the main attachment point to secure the bed wood/platform to the truck. (edit- there was/are 8 bolt through wood/bolt through frame locations on a 55.2 3104 truck)

You are correct about the bed wood strips.

Brad


Wrench Fetcher, PhD