The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed 52 3600 Bed Assembly Help

Trying to install a new bed wood kit and not sure what is going on with regards to the holes that came pre-drilled in the outermost boards of 4 1/4. Never had this truck assembled yet. As you can tell from the attached picture the rear most hole of the two in the board that the hole does not have anything to bolt to below one forward of the hole in the view is perfectly line up with cross sill. And of course the rear sill does not allow me to install a cross sill to mount a bolt through, what is missing or out of place here, spent may hours staring at it with no idea what could be wrong . Certainly appreciate any feedback I can get.

Thanks in Advance


MIke

Mike,
Here are some pictures of my ‘51-53 style bed. Granted it is a 1 ton but it might provide some insight. The 1 ton frame rails are straight to the back (I believe 3/4 are the same). The 1/2 ton rails flare out considerably toward the back as they leave the cab area. I think you might have one of these problems:
1. The board is in the wrong place. Spin it 180 and put it on the left bedside. But if it’s like my one ton it still won’t line up...
2. You have 1/2 ton boards. My pictures of my 1/2 ton, before I disassembled it, show the offset washer holes on the outer board. But I assume your boards fit the box length, so this is unlikely.
3. The supplier drilled 1/2 ton holes in a 3/4 ton length bed wood kit.

If you look at the pictures, the shiny black bed is the one ton. Bed bolts are in a straight line on the 2nd board.
The old rotten, crusty box is the 1/2 ton. You can see that some of bed bolts are on the outside on the outer board. Warning though, this is actually a sheet of plywood the PO put in, so I believe the rear most bolt is absent.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/irLgZWSwgmTRVoqJ9

Questions for you:
Do you have pictures of all the wood? Lay it out in order and show us some measurements. If the supplier screwed up drilling ( or heaven forbid, if you did ! 😉), it will be very apparent to 3/4 truckers.

Is your box homemade? Is the cross sill at the rear an actual 3/4 ton cross sill?

Is that 4 1/4” the entire width of the board? If it is, I’m thinking the supplier messed up. But like i said, give us more info before you jump the gun! It’s better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak a remove all doubt! Get your facts lined up and then decide what to do. This has saved me lots of embarrassment in the past!

Get in touch with Brad Allen on Stovebolt here. He can definitely help you out. If he can’t, he will point you in the right direction. I hope this helps.

Not sure, but it's possible your angle strip is too far back. I don't believe it's supposed to lap over the rear cross sill portion that's flush with the top of the bed wood, but should be lined up with the vertical ledge just forward of that.

KL also has a point. I home built mine and had my strip flush like he described and I had to die grind a few bolt holes to get it to line up perfectly. I wasn’t about to remove all those spot welds and start over.

Here’s a picture from Brad’s 3/4 build. It show the location of the bed wood and its corresponding mounting holes. The mounting holes are on the second board all the way back.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/8129182723/in/album-72157631867396207/

I just thought of this: did you buy the correct year boards? 51-53 boards are different from 47-50. Chevy switched from 9 boards to 8 boards mid year 51.

According to this website the outer boards were always 4-1/4" on AD trucks.

There's also a difference in frame width, and accordingly cross sills between 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton pickups. Maybe you have a 1/2 ton bed wood set on a 3/4 ton truck. That would explain the non-aligned rear mounting holes. I originally thought you were referring to that hole in the angle strip on top of the rear sill, but that still may be a problem.

50” width on all beds in 1954, and supposedly that was the width in the earlier beds that had different shape/height bedsides and tailgates than in 1954 and later.

Tim, I was referring to the rear cross-sill to frame location in reference to that 50 inch bed width. Like you said, the bed inside width was the same for all AD pickups.
The 1/2 tons with wider frame at the rear would have the rear cross sill mounting points farther apart to match the frame width, and the 3/4 tons with narrower frame would have a different rear cross sill with narrow spaced mounting points. The frame difference was about a foot, which would put the 3/4 ton bed mounting bolts about 6 inches farther inboard on each side.

I want to thank all that replied to my request for the help with the bed. I was on the phone today with the mfg of the bed wood kit that I am having the first issue with which is in the picture with the lack of the place to bolt the 4 1/4 inch board. I was assured that the drill sheet spec matched up with my 1952 3600 truck and unless something was modified on the bed/frame that it should work out. This evening after I got home from work went out to garage and gave another attempt at figuring it out but the only thing I did for myself was to raise more questions.

With regard to the angle strips extending beyond the rear lip on the rear sill, I thought it did not either look right or serve any functional purpose, confused there as prior to removing my old ones I marked the ends of them with a marker at each end them went about cutting them off . New ones went right back in place to the marks withing a 1/16 of an inch, Hmmmmm ? Just the other day in looking for info on line I came across a bed build log on a truck site which showed the exact situation that I have with the angle strips extending over the rear sill and coming up short at the front panel, really confused at more than one issue on this bed stuff. So far the only thing I am confident of is that the width is 50" and the length is 85 3/4.

If and when I ever solve this mess I will put together a nice package of pictures, measurements and very concise directions to hopefully help anyone else with these headaches.

Thanks again and I will definitely be updating this thread as progress and info becomes available, hopefully .

By the way my board kit is made up of 8 boards 4/14" (2) , 5" (2), 7 1/4 (4)



Mike

Put both outside boards in place and measure between the mounting holes. If they're 46" apart, you've got a 1/2 ton bed kit, or at least drilled to fit on a 1/2 ton.
I would lay everything out on the ground and send the supplier photos of what you have, with tape measures showing the critical dimensions. If they messed up, they should make it right for you.

Mike, It looks like you have a board kit drilled for a 1/2 ton GMC long bed. 1/2 ton and 3/4 tons had the same bolt spacing front to back but different frame widths, 1/2 ton frames being a lot wider as mentioned in the previous post.

Regarding the angle strip, the original angles extend over the top of the rear sill for reasons nobody seems to know. At the front, they can't extend all the way to the front panel because that would interfere with the bolted flange of the front panel which is about 7/8" wide. That rear hole in the angle strip should line up exactly with the corresponding hole in the rear sill.

Mar-Ktech

Thanks for the info Mar-Ktech. Spent some more time out in that garage again trying to figure it out, did not devote a lot of time to it since I had other stuff to take care of but I am pretty much of the opinion that something went wrong somewhere. When I found some pictures of at least 3 1953 3/4 ton 3600s it appeared that no holes were drilled in the 4 1/4 inch boards and had them in the adjacent 7 inch boards, waiting to here back from the manufactured of the boards.Thanks for the info on the angle strips, I think I may have to cut mine back off since I have two adjacent holes in the strips that should be on the forward side of the bed, currently I have them to the rear side. I have cross sill the has a piece welded on at either end at a 90 degree that is about 5 inches long and has holes spaced 3" apart on the side of the face that line up with some holes in the bedside directly in line with the second stake pocket, I can only guess this is the sill that is the next one back behind the front panel. I just wonder where GM documents all these items ? I understand that there is no bed details in the factory assembly manual, at least that is what one person noted on Amazon.


Mike

The elusive GMC 1/2 ton long bed! Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh....

Michael, Mar-Ktech is the recognized expert. His company has been making and selling Bed parts for many years. Go to their website and look through the Tips section for diagrams and info. Good luck.🛠

Hi All... and thankful for the forums.
I'm just finishing the Boiled Linseed Oil/Lampblack painting of the bed boards for my '53 3600 and then finally be ready to put the bed on the frame.
Most of this being done by myself, I wondered if anyone has advice or comments about re-assembling the bed directly on the frame.
And maybe any critical sequence to follow tho I have a pretty good idea having read several documents on it.

What I've read suggests putting the bed together on horses/off the frame. But I have the truck parked in such a manner that would be all but impossible to lift and put it on the frame.
Haven't started it in over threes years and was going to hit the engine after the bodywork.

Suggestions? Thanks for any input!
Tom/TS360

I did my 3600 bed boards with the box on the frame. It was NO problem. I didn't even need a second hand from the top, the bolts generally stayed in place.

Mine's a 49 but unless I'm greatly mistaken, the bed wood (and box mounting) should be pretty consistent through '53

Tom, You might be able to put some 2x4's across the frame and assemble the bed on those. It wouldn't have to be exactly where it needs to be and you could jack the assembly up and slip the 2x4's out to move it and mount it in final position on the frame.

Thanks for your suggestions and the motivation 'Bolter and Kevin :^).
I'm up to the task now...and probably a lot of caffeine :^D.

Tom

My ‘50 3600 original bed side angle strips overlap the rear sill, but the other strips do not. You can see in the pictures in my signature…

Finally completed the bed inside the box, but had to play with the frame a little, as well the back bolts (dropping cross-sill). Just took some patience and planning next few moves.

Jigsaw puzzles come to mind?