The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Angle Strips

1950 3100. I have new bed strips, angle strips and bed wood. The angle and bed strips were pre-hole punched. The bed strip holes match my original ones. I did not have angle strips to compare them to the old ones. In about the center of the angle strips on both sides, one bolt hole does not match up with the bolt hole on the bed strips. It is about an inch or two off. Is this correct? Thanks in advance,

Nifty, I just installed my angle strips a week ago and noticed the same thing. I bought my strips over ten years ago, so it's unlikely we got them from the same supplier. I'll have to do some research to see what other people have.

Thanks. I thought I got bad strips. Maybe they're correct afterall.

I purchased mine undrilled because I suspected this very thing and am glad I did. Got them from the old Chevy Duty in stainless. I realize this doesn't answer your question but I post it to let others know there is something else available.

We have always made them with that hole offset. We made the measurements on an original truck years ago. There was no obvious reason why the hole was offset, we made it that way anyway since it was original. I would be interested in hearing from any board member that knows why the holes are offset.

Mar-Ktech

I replaced my bed wood, strips and angle strips six months ago. I will look tomorrow and see if I can remember what I went through. I do know that I have seen trucks with the angle strips installed wrong. There is a tendancy to lay the strip on the back cross piece. Since it was almost a year between disassembly and reassembly it took me several trys to line everthing up. The angle strip goes all the way to the front if you line up the hole at the front bed panel then sit the cross sills in place it only fits one way you should be fine and the holes will line up.
Steve

I won't be tackling my bed for quite a while, but I have a question about Stainless Steel Angle Strips:

The original angle strips in my trucks ('57 GMC and '59 Chev) were spot welded to the bedsides. How does one attach new Stainless strips to the bedsides? Are they also spot-welded in place, or are they bolted? I cannot recall seeing any trucks with a row of bolts along the bedside just above floor level.

Any information that you gentlemen can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Photo

Photo:
The replacement angles may be either bolted or welded to the bedsides. Just be sure the attachment is secure. We have a pdf that helps explain the procedure. http://www.mar-k.com/54-72anglestrips.pdf

Mar-Ktech

Has anyone used the angle covers as opposed to replacing the originals and if so how do they look?

Mar-Ktech,

Thanks for the instructions.

I still have one concern: Will the spot-welding not discolor the polished stainless steel? If so, can the discoloration be polished out?

Thanks,

Photo

Photo:
You are correct. Welding will discolor the angle where it is welded. You try to minimize the discoloring and scaling by using an aluminum or copper backup block on the angle as shown in the instruction. Depending on how bad the scale is, use progressively finer wet-or-dry paper to at least 600, finer if you have it, and then polish to a shine with a liquid metal polish. There will likely be some distortion at each of the welds that you can't polish out.

Mar-Ktech