Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

I just assembled my bed for the first time and the bed does not line up with the cab. It appears to me the bed is about 1” too high. Where did I go wrong?
Details:
I am assembling factory SWB fleet sides with the rest of the bed components coming from a long bed.
Installed new poly cab mounts that appear to be correct – the front sheet metal looks right.
Blue tape at body lines for reference.
Pix:

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

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Did you use pads between the bed and the bed mounting brackets?

LockDoc

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

No pads. Metal on metal.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

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OK.

I think your tape is a little misleading. You should use the body line back toward the door for lining it up, not the end of the tape. Have the cab corners been replaced?

LockDoc

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

i dont know but,, does the chrome on the back of the cab line up with the top of bed?

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

old cab mounts?

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Metal vs wood box floors?

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

If I were a betting man, I'd say the rear bed mount on the passenger side is too low (or needs a spacer - or pad, etc).

All of them need a pad - metal on metal not good. But unless it's currently perfectly level side to side (ref Windmill's email) then I'm guessing adding a little spacer (or slightly thicker spacer than the rest) in the passenger side rear mount would help the height problem and fix the vertical gap problem (it is big at the top and tight at the bottom, indicating the rear of the bed is too low or the fron of the bed is too high). I'd look at the fwd drivers side mount and make sure it's not bent (up) somehow. Looks ok in the pic (if that's it) except for the missing pad.

Could monkey with the rubber mounting spacers for the cab, but raising the cab to align would exacerbate the vertical gap problem, so I'd try to approach it from the bed if possible.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Hey guys thanks for all the replys late on a Sunday!!

More pix:

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Yea it is. See new pix with tape gone. Original cab corners

See pic added. It's level enough for me.

Replaced those and I think I got it right?

I did a forum search and read they were different heights. These all measure about 2-1/4". Came off the LWB donor that was an original wood floor truck and I'm sure never apart.

I thought about raising the back to tip the box down in front but the front is bolted down solid. There's no room to lower the front.

Yes gap seems tight at the bottom and bigger at the top.

I'd prefer not to raise the cab unless I made a mistake installing the new cab bushings.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

What cross braces are you using? I can't tell from the pics, but I went out and measured mine.

My stepside with a wood bed has 2-1/8" thick cross braces, and the steel fleetside bed floor I have has a hair over 3" thick cross braces. If you say you're about an inch high... it makes sense to me that you may have used the fleetside bed mounts? If you swap from a steel to a wood floor you need to use cross braces for the wood bed, the front bed panel is different, and even the "roll pan" looking piece that finishes off the back of the bed has to be unbolted, cut out, and swapped.

EDIT: You posted while I was typing mine out and missed your last post. That answers that, should be the right ones.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Thanks for measuring yours. Here's a pic I just took for good measue.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

is the bed side where it meets the wood floor bracket correct.. it being over the wood..
if it was on the underside of the wood it drop the sides 3/4" and fix some of that tight gap.. I haven't seen a wood bed so I might be way off base..

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

the guy with the 1964--66 chevy truck is right you don't want to run metal on metal every time you hit a bump it will make noise and bang I've uses the square rubber cushions on the under bed tabs trust me every your bolt loosen up you will hate the sound

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Found this statement: "Wood bottom bed strips are different than the steel bottom ones are. The height is different and the way they mount are different. The tall wood bottom sills are 2 3/8" tall, and the tall steel bottom ones are 3 1/4" tall. WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com" in this thread..... http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?p=627553

Hope it helps you out....

Bill

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

But,he is using the 2 3/8" wood floor supports. So,that's not it.

This is a factory short bed frame? If it's a shortened C/20 the rear cab mounts on frame are lower and require a different cushion.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

when you were down to a bare naked frame did you measure the frame to see if it was straight after 40years of use

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

In the first photo, it looks like the rear of the bed may be a little low. If so, it would make the front high and the gap near the cab corner and bed would be narrow while the gap near the top of the bed and the rear of the cab wider. Hard to tell from photos.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Dude ive seen alot, im aen alot of this, shim the cab

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

cab bushings

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

The "rear" of the bed needs to come up 1/4" and then shim up the rear cab mounts to make it match....

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Shim your cab up. Some of the new bushing you buy are not the same as GM. They are a litle thinner. Not all of them are this way but some. You will need to shim front and back some to get the gap of the cab and bed the same. As for the rubber on the under the bed. If you do that go as thin as possible. GM never did that from the factory.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Mine's about 1 1/2" from top of the bed to bottom of the chrome strip.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

The pic of the new cab mounts looks to me that the rubber is a little shorter than I've seen before.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

This is exactly what I thought. To me it looks like the new bushing is aweful short.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1323665121

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

here is a good reference for the cab mounts and measurements. It was posted by Bruce in his build. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...318544&page=18
Hope he doesn't mind but here is the picture, it really helped me out.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

A pic of my rear mounts after renewal. Your upper bushing looks squished.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

The back bushings on his cab look squished to me, also. I just replaced the one on my '67 and they look like yours.

I just snugged mine down without squishing them. I got them from Classic Parts and they look like yours.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

You don't suppose he has the front and rear cushions swapped do you? Would make sense since they are different thickness. The rear one is thicker.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

My front and rear mounts:

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Hey - maybe you're supposed to inflate it?

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Thanks for all your input guys! I REALLY appreciate it. :metal: Started to quote individuals but most suggest cab bushings. So...

This is the cab bushing set I installed:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ENS-3-4108G/

Instructions list a 0.1" taller sleeve in the rear cab position.

Poly bushing thicknesses as installed using dial calipers.

Core Support - 0.750

Front cab - 1.01

Rear cab - 0.875

I have the taller (by 1/8") bushing in the front cab position. Winner?

More pix with measuring tape:

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Yeah, good ol Classic Parts.



:lol::lol: And with air bags that would be the complete air system.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Hey eightbanger,i am is the assembly stage (mock up) of my 69/72super/ls1,researching
bed assembly,came across your dilema.on your first post you show 5 pics of your bed.on the fourth pic of your post is the front bed perch,i am pretty sure your perch is on the frame backwards.the angle is down towards the cab.It should be level with your rear perch if you straight edge it the length of the frame rail.By reversing it you should gain some or all of the lowering distance you nedd to align the bed to the cab.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Stomper, is the OP badwrench not me...but I think you may have hit the nail on the head there.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Noticed that but looks like factory rivots -maybe camera angle.....jim

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Yeah, camera angle on that.

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Hey stomper,i sent this earlier to the wrong person.from what i can see in your pics your front bed rail support perches seem to be installed backwards.i was just checking mine before i bolted them in, i positioned them reversed and it appears that it would lift the front of the bed up about the distance your having a problem with.unless it's one of those "obstical illusions"
badwrench

Re: Bed too high? What did I do wrong?
 

Hey Stomper, I'm jsut catching back up - wondering if you got this fixed. I see you've posted a few more pics since last time I checked - and it appears to me that the passenger side gap between the bed and cab is extremely small... With all the other stuff going on, I'm curious how the truck was before you disassembled? Did everything appear level then? Asking because that would dispel the bent frame idea - which seems like a possibility if nothing else is making sense. Regardless, I think that if you've eliminated any mis-steps in the re-assembly process, shimming the cab may be the best route. Have you compared all the cab mounts and rubber to confirm they are same size - and looked at the bed mounts to do the same. Personally, I would install small rubber shim on bed, then adjust cab with shims to square it up. Not sure what else to do.