Found my bed

[57chevyman]

Found a deal almost too good to be true. My neighbor around the block from me bought a '56 stepside last summer with a complete extra bed...
I talked to him right away about it but he was undecided about what he was doing . So last week I dropped a note in his mailbox just to say I'm still interested in his bed....
He called this morning , I just went to look at it. It's solid! And here's the best part- he wanted to barter and I'm doing an even trade for yard work at his house, ripping out a bunch of ivy.
I'll post pics when I have it

[mud.man.rj]

You are one lucky man, better bring it home before the bed heads to another home or changes his mind, cool on the barter too.

[OrrieG]

Win, win for everyone....

[mr48chev]

Winner on that one and probably both ways.

If that late model bed that came on it isn't modified you can probably get some money back off it and even if they hacked it up to get it to fit you could make a trailer out of it to use or sell.

[57chevyman]

Already have a buyer for the late model bed for $250.00

[_Ogre]

as mentioned... win, win for both of you

[57chevyman]

my tailgate

[mr48chev]

Cool on having a buyer for the late model bed. That puts money in the kitty to work on the new to the truck bed.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

[57chevyman]

So glad I found this one, and it's like it's meant to be - the cleanup yard work is two blocks from where I park my dump truck so I have no pressure to get the job done in one day. I wanted to find a decent original bed rather than spend big bucks on a new bed.
Gonna soda blast the tailgate next week and spray some primer on it. Maybe I can find a light blue rattlecan primer :-)

[Kim57]

Great deal.
Kim

[57chevyman]

cleanup up job is done. would you believe there was $170 worth of scrap metal i took away from the job?

[Apachemike]

Nice! My bed had to be shipped from Minnesota to Georgia!

[57chevyman]

got the rest of my bed home!

[57chevyman]

i picked up some of this primer + paint made by rustoleum. only $3.87/can at home depot... when i was in the store it was hard to tell which can would match better, but i painted a couple of wrenches and i think the seaside gloss matches pretty well. i cant wait to work on it!

[pvienneau]

Nice work all around. Color is a great match.

[futameca]

Nice find on the bed! I'm super jealous. I'll be getting a bed in the future but not as easy as you came by this one.

[57chevyman]

Can anyone tell me the proper order to assemble the bed ? I'm probably going to do a plywood floor for now . I have the cross sills. I think my trailer hitch is in the way of the rear sill, unless it will fit above it.

[OrrieG]

Mar K has a ton of instructions in their tech section, on assembly, squaring, etc. If its a fleetside look at my build thread. I did mine off the truck to have lots of room to work around it.

[57chevyman]

^^ thank you.is assembling the bed off the truck the preferred way ? I have stepside . My bedsides , steps, and fenders are all already connected to each other . The lip on the bedside that face in that goes under the wood is rotted away in spots ... So not sure if I need to cut it off and weld a new strip of metal there ? Does the lip just support the edge of the wood ?

[57chevyman]

Originally Posted by OrrieG

Mar K has a ton of instructions in their tech section, on assembly, squaring, etc. If its a fleetside look at my build thread. I did mine off the truck to have lots of room to work around it.

the pics in the instructions are low res... so...the lip on the bedside sits on top of the edge of the outer wood board?

how would i do it if i wanted to do a plywood bed?

[octanejunkie]

Congrats!
I have a sheet of 3/4" treated plywood as a bed floor, was easy to lay in and bolt down once the metal was attached. You'll have to trim the length and float the sides. The stock bed angle strips in the corners cover the gap easily enough.
I used carriage bolts and hammer-in square inserts in the plywood to keep the carriage bolts from spinning.

[57chevyman]

Originally Posted by octanejunkie

Congrats!
I have a sheet of 3/4" treated plywood as a bed floor, was easy to lay in and bolt down once the metal was attached. You'll have to trim the length and float the sides. The stock bed angle strips in the corners cover the gap easily enough.
I used carriage bolts and hammer-in square inserts in the plywood to keep the carriage bolts from spinning.

Thanks ! So I can assemble the metal parts including the sills , and then lay the plywood in? Do you have an exact measurement for the sheet of wood?

[octanejunkie]

I can measure mine on Monday, I'm away for the weekend.

IIRC the bed attaches to the frame on the 4 corners, through the bed wood, and the bed wood to the sills.

You should be able to assemble the bed off the truck, sans fenders, and hoist onto the sills and frame. Easier to add the fenders once the bed is on the truck.

[57chevyman]

Originally Posted by futameca

Nice find on the bed! I'm super jealous. I'll be getting a bed in the future but not as easy as you came by this one.

finding a bed that came to me was pretty lucky! then again, ive been looking for a bed for over a year. i almost had one shipped from CA a year ago but i thought the shipping was too much. i thought about buying a mar-k bed, but that would run close to 3 grand for the bed, steps & fenders.
i need to get a new front panel for my bed...other than that, its all there. needs a little love to straighten it out. ill post more detailed pics soon.