[Benchracer]

March 04 2022 - Bed Removal

Since there are several items to take care of under the rear of the truck, my next project steps involved removing the bed to get access to everything under it: fuel tank relocation, fuel lines, rear brake lines, carrier bearing, driveshaft.....

First: 6 of those bed bolt nuts are at hard to get to places. Too much bolt extending to use a shallow. Not enough room to use a deep socket and any combination of swivel/wobble and too much for a wrench. Poop. The two that I could get to, I wire brushed the exposed threads and reapplied Deep Creep. They turned and it looked like I was home free! NOPE! I got 4 threads from the end and the recessed square in the bed gave up and became a rounded hole. I vise-gripped the exposed bolt shaft only to have the nut strip out. Double poop. Back to researching...



----->> WHAT NOT TO DO <<-----: I highly recommend NOT doing what I did to remove the bed bolts. I found several threads on how to cut an x in the head or grind off the head then tap them through the bed. I even found several several YouTube videos on doing this. So, that's what I did. <insert explicative here> While cutting the head seems good, these bolts are in a recessed area so you risk cutting the bed. I would X the bolt head only to find out there was still more meat on the bolt. I switched to cutting/grinding as much of the head as possible. Tap what was left with a hammer and punch. Success! the thin edge left on the bolt head popped and went through the bed. Whew, 7 more to go. The other 7 did not go the same...One just made the recessed square hole bigger. Another tore the bed at 2 points of the square. Two more made larger holes. CRRRRRRAAAAAAPPP. And guess what? The bolts are still in the bed channels. I did have 2 more inches of play which allowed me to cut the nut ends off so I could remove the bed. I hang my head in shame. Now that it's over, I have great regret and foreshadowing of more expense and work to fix what I did.

*** HIGHLY RECOMMEND *** Cut the bolts off from the bottom by any means necessary but not to damage the frame or bed. This will allow you to pull the bolts out by their heads from the bed. I cannot begin to tell you how much this will save you in the long run. I did not have adequate cut off tools then, I do now.

*** ALSO RECOMMEND *** IF you cannot cut them from the bottom, you can drill the heads off with a _good_ drill bit just large enough to drill the head off but not damage the recessed square hole. This will allow you to drive the bolt shaft down and out.



Rust Rain/Shower: If you don't know what this is, you are in for it. Those of you who do know are probably laughing. The whole time I was being introduced to "Rust Rain" or "Rust Shower". Yes, the vibrations of the tools were shaking the bed and loosening the years of scale that I could not get to with a power washer. It was all raining down on me. The pic is after only working on one bolt.


Finally released of it's moorings, myself and 3 guys were able to pick it up and walk it onto a small trailer.


I really hope someone finds this and lets my suffering help them do better.