The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed 1954 pickup bed assembly details

My 54 project was started by someone else so my continuation involves a lot of discovery. It appears that the entire bed and fenders are new, but they are not correctly mounted to the frame. Is there a manual similar to the Factory Assembly Manual which deals with the bed ? I don't know if new bed sides come drilled for the fender bolts or not, so I can't tell, at this point, what is correct and what needs to be corrected.

treefarmer - Here is a helpful link list that's right here in this forum. Of those links, 3 Legacy Tech Tips (all located on this Legacy Tech Tip page) are most on-topic to your truck and will give some great info towards your bed assembly and installation:

Bed Mounts for AD Trucks

Build Truck Beds Sides and Front Panel

Rebuild Bed Wood

Generally, the vast majority of reproduction bed sides come predrilled for the fenders, like this one offered by Classic Parts.

If you search through the other posts in this forum, you will find lots of helpful info and links on your bed building info.

Here's a link to a Early Chevy Pickup Bed Restoration downloadable pdf created by Jim Carter many moons ago. I've not tried to download it, but it may be something you want to try.

There are lots of other sources in the posts and perhaps others will chime in and add pointers or links to some that will help you in your project.

If your truck is a 54 the bed sides should be flat on top and there should be a contour line that follows were the fenders go. I don’t see that line in your picture but the older bed I Think will still work .

Finally got a picture to load ,After a update everything changes lol.

My tops are flat, but there is no stamped pattern

Interesting I wonder if they are just older panels before they were making the ones with stamping on the side or if someone was able to bend the angle from a 45 degree to a 90 degree to match the 54 .could you measure the depth of the box from the 90 degree bend to the angled bed strip the 54 had a deeper box than the older trucks .That way you could be certain .The frames are apparently different on the 54 to allow for the deeper box design but I am not sure of this ,I do know the 54 does not have the wooden bed blocks to hold the bed up and that may be the reason to hold the older bed up higher and not a difference in frames .Maybe check in the tec tip area were it shows the differences between the years

Here is what I found ,I don’t see the bed imfo on the site differences but I did not read all of it

Some of the reproduction bedsides for a 54-55 truck did not have the indented pattern that followed the fender outline. It also looks like your frame is not a 54 frame. The 54 frame had a different shape over the axle so the 54 bed could be deeper than the 53 and earlier beds. That is the kickup noted in the AI quote provided by KEVINSKI above. It will be a challenge to fit a 54 bed properly to this frame.

Mark

My understanding is that only the 54 bedsides (original) had the impression that followed the fender, and 55's had flat bedsides where the fenders mounted, but I may be wrong. Mark has more experience in this area. My thinking is that GM saved some money by not stamping the impressions for the fenders after that one year.

As was stated above, the frame looks like a 47-53 frame with the higher arch over the rear axle. The pictures above look like the cross-sill is a taller one for the earlier bed, which would make the 54 bed sit higher than it should, and the fenders would also be higher.

I think the OP has an apples and oranges situation as far as mounting the bed properly.

Unfortunately, the FAM has NOTHING about the bed assembly and mounting.

I just finished putting new bed panels on my truck and not only were the fender bolt holes already drilled and the bolts were spot welded in place.