Pullin parts tomorrow , Bed ???

[Mater/10]

Hey guys ,

Tomorrow im headed to pull a few parts off a 65' and want to know a few things.

How hard is it to pull a bedside? does it just unbolt or is it welded anywhere?

im needing the Rear frame tail light harness is it better to buy new or can i trust the 50 year ol harness?

[TJ's Chevy]

Well if you don't need the bedside....and if the junk yard or were ever the '65 is don't care...then I would bring a hammer and a cutter and cut and pound away! As far as the bed sides you will have to unbolt it to get it off....and if the bed has wood you'll have to pull the wood using the strip on the bedside. Piece of cake!

[earl84]

I'd probably buy a new harness, 50 year old wires are hard to trust. You can get just the rear harness at several vendors.
As far as the bedsides, it will unbolt but, at least on mine, there was 1 welded area on the very rearmost cross sill where bed side meets it at the bottom of the tailgate. That weld was of a bit** to grind off. It's only about an inch long. If you have a battery powered Sawzall or some type of battery powered drill with a grinder, I would take it with you. Oh, and the complete bedside is fairly heavy and unwieldy, so if you have help, that would be a bonus.
You can see it in this photo. This is inside the bed looking aft. Look right where the bright sunlight is. The tailgate is removed in this photo.

[earl84]

One more thing. The wheel tubs have a few bolts that are attached to the bedside, and they may be rusted too badly to get off. So you can either try to loosen or tighten and hope they break, or take your battery powered Sawzall or other cutting device and cut them. A bolt cutter might also work. You can see the bolt in this picture. It's just one on the front of the tub and one on the back. There are also about 6 or 8 around the tubs that connect it to the bedside as well, but they are probably not as badly rusted as the ones that I reference here.

Take some PB Blaster or other penetrant and hit all the bolts with a good soak before you start anything. I love PB Blaster!

[LT1 Burb]

They are a pain the ass to remove if the bed is off the truck, if still on you will be there for a few hours, it sucks. Take a big hammer and blow the wood out around the bolts and then cut them, take a bolt cutter.