I finished all of the front end/suspension work on my 53 Chevy 3100 1/2 ton. Now starting on the body work. I want to disassemble the bed for ease of workability and have the left/ride bed side panels separated to lay flat. Currently, the rear cross member looks to be spot welded to each side panel. Is it okay to grind down the welds to get the cross member separated? Was it originally welded in place by the factory, or is this someone else's handywork?
Pilot: it’s welded like that from the factory; my 1948 bed had similar welds. In fact, I replaced the 48 bed with a 1987 stepside bed: still welded in the same way. I’m sure the factory felt that simply bolting that rear sill to the bedsides was not sufficient to keep everything square.
What Flatblu4748 said. My '51 bed was also welded there. I rewelded there after restoring the bedsides and installing a new rear cross-sill and the destroyed stake pocket (pic). Yours looks in way better shape. You can carefully grind those welds away to disassemble it.
I'll move this thread over to Making a Stovebolt Bed where it'll be more on topic.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
Thanks Kevin, I'll tackle this tomorrow. MIne obviously doesn't have the rust damage that I've seen some on other trucks. Is that stake pocket spot welded on?
Yes, the stake pocket is spot welded to the bedside. I had to drill those out to get that piece of junk off the bedside.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
