The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Done with the cab; ready to start the bed: questions begin!

I have been working on the cab of my truck for about three and a half years and I'm finally getting around to the truck bed. The entire bed. I don't think I have the proper bed for my truck. This is a picture of the rear mounts, no front mounts, looks like this bed actually came off of another truck and then somebody welded in a more current bed floor. So what does this rear bed mount look like to you? Not a 52 GMC!

Paul, looks like you've done a great job judging from your Project Journal. On this bed part, we're gonna move your question to the Making a Stovebolt Bed portion. Besides getting an answer to your question, you may get some helpful ideas as you venture into this next chapter of the restoration.

Definitely not a 52 GMC bed. It would have had a wood floor, not a steel floor, and a cross-sill with a couple of extensions toward the front for bed mounting bolts.

I'm not sure when GM went to steel floors in the beds, but someone will be along to let you know.
A couple more pics would help ID what bed you have.

The sides are ‘53 or earlier (judging from a picture in his Project
Journal that shows a slanted top rail) so I suspect just the wood floor was replaced. I would try separating the steel floor from the rest of the bed and see what is left.
bed side top rail picture from PJ

I agree with Kevin, more pictures would help.

What has happened to this bed was somebody totally eliminated the entire floor and welded and bolted in the floor from a more current truck. My question was what the mounts on the rear of the bed were from. But I think those were also welded in by someone else. So I think I will have to completely fabricate the mounts from the bottom of the bed, to the frame rails.
I am going to use this bed as-is. With a lot of work to it of course.

You’re in the custom fabrication realm of this hobby. All I can say is the bedsides are correct for your truck and it looks like the back support is not from a 47-53. The supports under the floor don’t look like my ‘52 and most likely came from the same truck as the floor.

Here is a photo of the rear bed support sill from a 47-53 Chevy/GMC, looking from underneath which should help in fabricating new supports.

I'm guessing you could adapt this bed mounting to your frame. If you're lucky the suspected mounting points that I circled in red match up with your frame dimensions (see attached pic with markups.) It looks like the holes at the rear have a weld nut with threads in them from your first picture for bolting from the bottom. Measure the frame mounting holes and see how they compare with the bed. You'll need some blocks (or some welded in pads) for the bolt locations to reinforce the bolting locations if they aren't thru one of the cross-sills. The forward holes will be closer together (side to side) than the rear ones.
It's just going to take some measuring and maybe drilling some new holes either in the frame or the bed floor.

[on edit] The centermost cross sill may interfere with the frame hump over the axle. But that can be moved or modified if necessary.

Good luck

I need to know the location of the 6 mounting holes that go through the bed. That gives me an idea then where I can start. The bed is 50 inches wide and 78 long, does anybody have that information?

I can go measure the bolt locations on my 1951 bed. They'd be relative to the front and sides of the bed.
Give me a few minutes. Is your GMC a short bed 1/2 ton? [on edit] 78" long woulbe be a short bed.

Front bolts are 1-3/4" behind the front panel and 6-5/8" inside the bed side (measured above the angle strip)
Rear bolts are 53-3/4" and 73-5/8" behind the front panel and both 2-7/8" inside the bed side.

Half ton yes. That's perfect thank you, gives me a starting point. Hey I was in Eagle River about 4 weeks ago! My wifey and me were up in Alaska for about 12 days. Have some friends in Homer, went halibut fishing, did a fjord trip out of Seward, rode the train up to Fairbanks did a little river boat trip. We had a great time, can't wait to go back. We stayed at an Airbnb in Eagle River for the night before heading to the airport in Anchorage the next morning. Looks like I'm going to have to do a little more metal work on the sides of this thing then I thought needed.
Thanks for the info
Paul

Paul, That sounds like the standard tourist trip. Glad you had a good time.
Next time you're up look me up. My next door neighbor rents out an apartment AirBNB style. Did you happen to notice an Omaha Orange AD just up the street?

If it's not too much to ask, I was wondering what the height of the bed is off the frame at the front most mount and the rearmost mount. And no, I did not see an Omaha Orange AD from Highway 1 haha

This truck bed was abused from way back, must explain why the metal bed was in place. Found lead on both of the top rails, don't know how I'm going to deal with that. Also I don't know what to do with these tabs that are on the post holes. Maybe just bend them down and call it good. Looks like someone cut them off and welded them back on

I was the second owner of a 1956 Ford pickup back in the 90s. The original owner had a diamond plate steel bed installed over the wood bed shortly after it was purchased.

It was beautifully done and so solid, I saw no reason to remove it. The original wood bed underneath looked like new.

Are you planning to install an original / reproduction bed or are you going to make this one presentable?

Going to do the best I can with what I have. I originally wanted this truck to be kind of a work truck anyway. I had a 53 when I was a kid and it had a steel plate bed floor and I could do just about anything in the back of that truck. No show truck, but a decent driver

Your restoration is way past just a work truck, but I can see the advantage of a steel bed. With your practice on restoring the cab, custom fabricated bed mounts should be no problem!

I get 4-3/8" from the top of the frame to the bottom of the wood in front and 4-1/4" at the back. Add 3/4" for the wood thickness to get to the bottom of the angle strips. That should get you close.

As far as the tabs at the stake pockets, those are problematic and hard to get right without removing the stake pocket. They take a beating. They should be bent vertically downward. Here's a pic of the best one of mine. I had to replace that stake pocket, so was able to get the tab close to the right position.

[on edit] The lead shouldn't be a problem, you can either remove it and use filler in place of it or just use filler over it.

On that stake pocket I measured 2 1/8 in from side to side. With it bent down is that a 2 1/8 inch square then? And thanks for helping me with this, it would be convenient if I knew someone with an AD around me. I was just watching videos on heat shrinking metal, will need to do that if it's going to look somewhat straight

I get right at 2" front to back and 1-1/4 +/- side to side. I think you could sneak a steel bar to use as a dolly under the bed roll and above the stake pocket from the side to be able to bend that tab down. Using some heat to help get the bend position correct might help, but you won't need to shrink the metal there. You will need to weld the cracks and then bend the tab down after you have it basically flat with the angled bed side.

Stovebolter Mother.Trucker hangs out in Scull Valley, west of Prescott and has a bunch of parts. Find other stovebolters in Arizona by searching the member list Link
Try Private Messaging to see if any of them are near you.

Kevin I just noticed in your project Journal that you used a ball on the end of a rod to straighten out the tube on the top rail, what was that ball that you welded onto that rod? And I'll check out that link, Skull Valley is about an hour from my place

Paul, I found a pair of ball bearings on AMAZON and welded a nut on one to be able to screw it on to a slide hammer. I used that as a dolly inside the bed side roll to remove the flat spots on it. I had to grind off a bit from each side of the ball so there was a spot to hammer down with the full diameter of the ball under the low spot. It actually worked pretty well. I don't recall what the diameter was, but it was a snug fit in the bed roll. I'd have to go dig it out of the garage to measure it.

{on edit} according to the notes here the ball was 1-1/2 inch diameter.

Very inventive. I'll measure the roll I'd and see what I can find