Switching from Double wall to Single wall

[Ridnhi]

I am going to take a single wall top off of my 72 and put it on my 71 and I'm wanting to make it look factory. Basically, I'm looking for advice so that when I go to do this I don't over look anything. I'm doing this before the 71 gets painted so when I weld the nuts to bottom of bed rail I won't ruin the paint. I have all of the brackets for both tops. I know that I need to take the welded nuts off of the bottom of the bedrails to transfer them and move the dome light wiring but is there anything else that I'm over looking?

[Ridnhi]

Anyone done this? How hard is it to get the nuts off of the bottom of the bed rail without tearing them up?

[1949gmc]

I will be doing just the opposite... putting a double wall on a truck that originally had a single wall. The nut cages are the only thing that I know of that has to be changed. They are spot welded in place, so you'll have to drill the spot weld to get them off. If you can drill them from the bottom, you'll keep from drilling a hole thru the top of the bedside, but that could be tricky to do over the wheel wells. A 90 degree drill might come in handy there. Not sure what else you'll need to do.

What about just using a flat washer and nut instead of trying to go the factory way? Save you a lot of hassle doing that I would think.

[DANTES JIMMY]

You do not want to do any hard welding in they have some movement in the fact nuts and oblong holes to accomodate for some adjustment and wiggle room when installing
i do not think a hard weld would be a good idea

[Ridnhi]

Originally Posted by 1949gmc

What about just using a flat washer and nut instead of trying to go the factory way? Save you a lot of hassle doing that I would think.

I am wanting to put a set of interior panels on the bedsides and I would think that that would make it a pain when taking the top on and off otherwise I would. Maybe I could come up with an easy way to take panels on and off and go the washer and nut method on the top.

[1949gmc]

Ah, yeah. That would be a pita. I read, somewhere on this board, that someone had successfully used velcro to attach their interior panels. There is another kind of velcro-like fastener that is called loop and lock, I think... Could that be something to look into?

I found the thread that I was thinking about: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=334037 . Post #28.

[Ridnhi]

I like the idea of the velcro. I guess a strong commercial grade would hold just fine. Thanks for the help.
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