Technical 1940 Ford Pickup - Bed Assembly

Like you did with the steel and vice grips, I braced the bed sides to hold them in place while I welded up the seams. I did this step on the truck in case there was any deviation to my frame or the wood timbers, that would put the bed in a bind when bolting it down.

That gap a the running board is completely normal and like I said earlier, the reason the running boards rotted there as dirt and debris would get in there and retain moisture. I had to remind myself many times that these were not p***enger vehicles, these are work trucks, farm trucks, commercial vehicles. Not the "bro trucks" of today. I spent hours in the door jambs cleaning them up and rewelding them to make them look nicer, even to the extent of making SS door jamb sill plates which they didn't have either.

You are doing a great job. Keep it up.

 

The bed floor looks nice without the bolt heads showing. It looks like there are no pre-drilled holes for the fenders. Maybe it's just the picture. You're making good progress.

 

I think you're absolutely right about locking down everything with the bed on the truck. It would be easy to get things misaligned otherwise.

My bed sides don't have holes drilled for the fender bolts, or square cutouts for the stake pockets.
I don't think I will do the stake pocket cutouts. and I am leaning towards not putting the bolts through the bed wood.

Kirk

 

I nearly welded up the stake pockets, don't need them. If you have a plasma torch (or a buddy with one) they make easy work out of cutting the square holes for the flatheaded, carriage bolts that secure the fenders. Just need a piece of steel with a square cut out of it or a steel template (available online cheap).

 

The front of the fender bolts to the running board so you have a starting point and I think you can move the fender up or down to center the rear wheel in the opening. I can see welding pieces over the stake pocket holes; they just collect water and dirt anyway.

 

Its been a while since my last update. I ended up taking apart the bed and adjusting the middle frame cross rails.
I found that when test fitting the bed strips, the cross rail holes were out of alignment just enough to put the bed strip bolts at odd angles.
Earlier I had mentioned that the side filler piece had the remnants of what looks like a bracket on it.
You can see it in these pictures:



Its just the remains of a small tab at the front corner.


Also it occurred to me that I cant put the studs from bedside to the fender in the factory locations, as they would interfere with the bed wood. (Which of course wasn't part of a factory 40 truck)
So I think I will have to slightly alter the locations so the studs are slightly above the wood.



Kirk

 

Are you referring to the fender bolts that extend from inside the bed?

There are two that fall below the surface of the bed. You can see the rear one here

And the front one here

They are very thin headed stainless carriage bolts that are installed prior to the bed wood.

maybe I missed something.

 

Yes those are the ones I'm talking about.
Since I don't have holes in my fenders (they were filled during the metal repairs)
I was going to avoid putting the studs in a spot where they would interfere with the bed wood.

Kirk