First Post!

[mtflat]

They welded the bed to the frame?? ...meaning the crossmembers are welded to the frame? There should be 1/4" rubber cushion between the x-member and frame. Makes me wonder what they did to adjust the cab mount so it lines up.

The x-members are reproduced today. Check out Mack Hils Products, Moberly, MO. They supply a variety of vendors and sell retail as well.

Ford used fine thread bolts - I've found most of those will come loose with a little PB-Blaster. That stuff is a life saver...

A 50 should have had a sheetmetal bedfloor from the factory. It was spot welded to the walls around the edge flange. There would have been rough wood under the metal floor.

 

[F1Dave]

They welded the bed to the frame?? ...meaning the crossmembers are welded to the frame? There should be 1/4" rubber cushion between the x-member and frame. Makes me wonder what they did to adjust the cab mount so it lines up.

The x-members are reproduced today. Check out Mack Hils Products, Moberly, MO. They supply a variety of vendors and sell retail as well.

Ford used fine thread bolts - I've found most of those will come loose with a little PB-Blaster. That stuff is a life saver...

A 50 should have had a sheetmetal bedfloor from the factory. It was spot welded to the walls around the edge flange. There would have been rough wood under the metal floor.

So the factory wood and sheet metal are gone, no telling how long ago. The bed was replaced and welded both to the side panels and to the cross-members, as well as the cross-members being welded to the frame. The cab mounts are still intact. It appears as though there were pieces used as spacers, also welded on, between the bed and cross-members to retain the stock height and alignment. I'll try to get some pictures up later of underneath.

 

[F1Dave]

Here are some pictures showing how the bed is now attached. As you can see, the crossmembers are basically welded to the frame with pieces of angle iron. Additionally, the sheet metal of the bed is welded to the crossmembers below and to the side panels on top. My plan of attack is to cut through the bed around the angle iron pieces, freeing the entire bed as a single unit from the frame. I'll then begin try to salvage any pieces of the bed that I can. For sure the front panel is junk, but the side panels may be salvageable (with lots of grinding...). You can also see where somebody thought it was a good idea to weld the back bumper to the frame, but that's a minor problem compared to the bed.

 

[mtflat]

Not hopeless at all, but you have some work ahead of you. Somebody was really ambitious - stock is much less work : )

Good luck with it and if you run into snags, we'll be happy to offer suggestions.

 

[F1Dave]

Got a little farther with the tear down last night. Got the passenger rear fender off, pulled the hood trim, headlights, and started working on freeing the front fenders.

Here's a shot of the start of what's going under the hood eventually. I'll be doing the engine build in between the tear down and rebuild of the body.

 

[BUCKEYE BOB]

welcome to ftf