The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Replacing Rear Stake Pockets

I just received new rear stake pockets from Mar-K for my 67-72 Stepside Bed.

What is the best way to remove the old stake pockets? I assume the best method is to drill out the spot welds, remove the old pockets and then use the holes to rosebud weld the new pockets on?

I always like to ask, seems like you guys often have found a better way and I can benefit from your experience.

Thanks in advance!

JOhn

Hi John, You seem to have answered your own question!

What you say is correct,just be careful not to drill right through!

This certainly seem to be the safest way to do it,I used the same process to remove my angle strips with good results.

I ran over the area with 80grit sandpaper to highlight the spot welds. I assume you'll be painting anyway.

Good luck

Jock

I use Wurth brand 10 mm spot weld bits. They really make a quick job of cutting spot welds and they seem to stop when you get through the first layer of metal. On something like a stake pocket, I split it once I remove it and use it for a template for drilling the holes for my plug welds.

In this instance the new stake pockets I have do not have the spot weld holes in them. Wouldn't I simply drill all the was through the both pieces of existing metal (existing stake pocket and bed wall), remove the old stake pocket and then weld on the new one using the holes in the bed?

That way the welds are on the inside surface of the bed where they can be more easily made and then subsequetly ground smooth easier.

Does this make sense?

Thanks,

John

thats how I would do it

Thanks for the advice. I started removing the 1st stake pocket this afternoon.

The drilling out of the spot welds worked well.

What didn't work so well is one of the previous owners had stitch welded the stake pocket up under the bed lip. I used my sawzall to cut the top of the pocket loose so I could remove 90% of the original stake pocket. Now I have to try to use an air file or dremel or ?? to get the weld ground down that is holding the remaining portion of the stake pocket that is up under the bed lip.

Hey, if it was easy everybody would do it, right?

I ended up having to use an air file with a 3" cut-off wheel and a Dremel with a 1" cut-off wheel to get all the previous owners nasty welds off from under the bed lip. There was a combination of brass brazing filler metal and what looked like stick welding.

This job would have been fairly easy had it not been for all the previous owners welding.

Now that the drivers side stake pocket is done I plan to tackle the passenger side. I think I will take some digital pictures of the procedure in case someone else would like to see the steps involved. I was going to do that on the drivers side but got so wrapped up into what I was doing I negelected to take photos of several of the steps.

Hi all,

This is kind of a followup to John's question. I have a 64 C10 long bed and I want to remove the stakepockets and weld the holes shut. I am concerned that if I use a spot weld remover I might go to deep and hit the metal I need to save. Would using an small angle grinder and grinding the spot weld away be a possibility? would it put too much heat into the panel? Has anyone removed them permanently? Thanks for this complete website, I am just starting on my truck and it's a 40+ year old stocker so I am sure I will be here alot! lol

cheers!