[Johns 66]

Well was a beautiful day today so worked on the bed...I figured I needed to install everything before I tore it apart to start finishing....GLAD I did

The last pic was just a real dry fit with the end bolts finger tight on the rear cross panel; and since I put in the crossmembers in the wrong order really couldn't do it...until today....Took all the wood out, swap the cross members to the right position and started installing the bed. at first the holes toward the rear lined up but the closer I got to the front...not so much...the new head panel holes were completely off...or so I thought. I rechecked the bed square, checked the board cuts for square but something was off.

FINALLY I realized that the rear cross member and the new (Repop) head panels were slightly bowed...….Here is the issue with that....when I started cutting the wood for length I started in the middle, measured, checked the edges and determined that GMC Pauls bed wood lengths were incorrect....actually they were right....so I cut the wood 1/8th shorter and in rough mock up it looked fine until I started adding bolts.

To make a long story short...I guess originally the bed wood was 1/8th short to allow for expansion and in my infonaut wisdom I cut the wood 1/8th shorter than that, only to realize the header panel was bowed inward.... so instead of a 1/16th on each end I now have whatever is between 1/16th and 1/8th.....I will have to redrill three holes in the header panel bottom so that the bolts will fit....once the header bolts are put in I can simply space the wood evenly between the front and rear....doesn't look too bad...just irritating.

So Ill get the cross braces took out, cleaned up and POR-15 them....Gonna get a coat of 50/50 poly and thinner applied to the bed wood to seal it up until I completely finish them.....

I did get the vent windows completely finished, rivets installed and the upper pivot rivet installed....so they are now complete...YAY!!!!!

Im gonna do a little work on the bed wood edges...gonna cut a rain channel in them...shouldn't be too bad......But lesson learned on the bedwood length.