The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed 38 1/2 ton bed "situation"

My '38 HC 1/2 ton had precious little left of original bed when I began this project. Just rec'd complete replacement bed. Bought wood and stainless hardware from a supporter of this forum.
I'm a little overwhelmed. Got bed assembled and squared up. Wood was a struggle, but I think it will be Okay now. The wood was pre-drilled (Tnx, MAR-K) and the holes for the two rear cross sills appear under the angle strips. I assume this is the correct location. However, the holes drilled in the wood are the size of the 6 large carriage bolts in the kit which are too large to place through the angle strip (also pre-drilled for smaller carriage bolts) Do I drill out the square holes to accomodate the larger bolts? I am really kind of lost here!

Lobo:
The angle strips on your bed sides should have been punched for two 3/8 bolts at the bed to frame locations near the back of the bed. All remaining holes in the angle should be 5/16" square. The bed to frame bolts behind the axle in this truck were installed through the angle strip. Just drill out the holes a little over 3/8" for the 3/8 carriage bolts. These angle strip holes should align directly over the matching holes in the rear area of your frame rails.

Hope this helps.

Mar-Ktech

Thanks for the reply. I finally had to enlarge the holes for the 3/8" bolts. Learned a lesson on this one. If you must get a complete bed, get it all from one source. I bought the steel components from a well know supplier and the wood and polished stainless hardware from Mar-K. The steel bed was 3/8" shorter than the wood! As you might guess, this wreaked havoc with the bed strips. I wound up filling the punched holes in the strips (at the tailgate end) and re-punching them to accomodate the rear sill.

All is well now and you will never see the difference!