I would take bed off, as Kevin says, cut the coil off, cut the welds on the leaf off. Clean up the tube. Keep the leaf intact and find the proper ubolts and plates. Move shocks and mount per original, if they are not. Somebody was carrying real heavy loads back in the day and wanted to "beef" it up.

Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it. - William Penn