The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Bed to frame bolt hole locations

Hey guys. So I’m in the process of restoring my truck and pretty soon I’ll need to look at putting together the wood bed. The beds from a 53’ Chevy 3100. I’m making my own slats following the profile dimensions, widths and lengths given on Mar-K and gmcpauls sites. The measurements I don’t see is for the thru bolts that go thru the wood, thru the cross sills into the frames. Does anyone have a drawing on the location of those in the slats? I know I’ll need to drill a larger recess area as well with a forstner bit for the washers. Thanks for any formation you can provide.

Adam

I don't have a specific reference to the locations, but you can determine the width between the holes by measuring the holes in the frame. They would be centered on the center of the bed, of course. As far as location front to back, the rear bolts go thru the rear cross sill section that sticks forward. You could measure forward along the frame for the others. My frame is out of the snow now, so I could measure the hole locations for you if you'd like. Let me know.

Thanks for response and your thoughts. I was thinking worse case I’ll just set the slats in to the bed while it’s on the frame and locate them that way. I guess that way it would be exactly where I need them to be also. Just trying to get as much lined up so it’s ready to go when I need things in my down time between working on the actual truck. We should be done with the snow here in Michigan and I’m not upset about that! Thanks again for the response.

Adam

Is there not somewhere a diagram of the placement for braces and proper install of the parts? I have an assy manual but don't see anything in reference to the bed. Any ideas??

If you're talking about the cross sills, the front one gets bolted to the front panel, the rear one goes all the way to the rear. (That part was easy )
One center cross sill on a 1/2 ton goes just behind the shock mounts toward the front of the arch in the frame. I could tell that by the wear marks in the frame when the blocks disintegrated and the cross sill settled onto the frame. That's about 24 inches behind the front mounting holes in the frame for the bed bolts. The other center cross sill goes toward the rear of the frame hump. The spacing will be dictated by the hole spacing in the bed strips.

Mar-K has assembly instructions available. Link

I second your idea of a dry assembly and then marking your holes. This way you aren’t guessing at all. Your bed will be squared up. You know everything will fit. You can also double check splash apron to bed bottom clearance, fender to running board mounting. It is a lot of work, but there is no guessing. You can check so much more than just the bed mounting holes in the wood while you do this.

Good luck.

Thanks guys, I have the frt panel on the bed sides and the rear connection panel all fastened up. Quick question on the rubber mounting cubes. Two on the frt of the bed under the frt panel correct? Then the rear connecting panel has one thin rubber insulator on the ends left and right, correct? The next two large rubber mounting cubes go just in frt of the last connecting panel at the end of the bed using the 3rd cross brace? Then the cross brace next after the frt panel is used mainly frt fastening the wood to the bed? How many bolts actually does it take to secure the bed to the frame? I have marks on the frame that indicate the 4 large rubber mounts 2 at the frt of the bed then just past the hump over the rear axles assy with 2 large rubber cubes then at the very end of the bed the last connection that holds the rear of the bed together and it has two smaller flat rubber insulators between it and the frame. Bed to frame 6 bolts? Am I anywhere close to being correct?