takin off the bed today

[79underconstruction]

well im going to go out n start unbolting my bed today to take ti off later tonight.. any idea how heavy a LWB bed is? im guessing it will take atleast 3 people? because i helped my brother n law take off the SWB bed off of his 66 ford f100 and that thing was needless to say HEAVY! so im guessing three or four people should be able to take mine off? but i am going to be flaring the fender walls on the outside 6 inches on each side and i have cut behind the wheel wells ( i am converting my truck into a PRERUNNER DESERT RACER truck..) not 100% but i am going to make ti look good and redo susp[ension and different tranny ect.. but i wil keep you guys posted with pics as i go along.. oh an one more thing does anyone know if it is illegal to drive w/o a rear bumper? in the state of california?

[WWPierre]

If you are taking the bed apart, here are some tips.

There are body bolts and carriage bolts. Undo the body bolts, but try to tighten the carriage bolts, they will mostly break off cleanly. New ones are cheap.

If a carriage bolt starts to turn, it will keep turning till hell freezes over. Use a zip-cut wheel in a 4-1/2" grinder to make a slot for a big slot screw driver, preferably one with a square shank you can hold with a crescent wrench. As a last resort, you can weld a nut to the head of a carriage bolt to hold it while you undo the nut or break the bolt.

Learned these lessons the hard way.

[79underconstruction]

well im not doing it like that.. i actually cut the inside of the wheel wells in the rear and it allowed me to pull out the rear fenders enough to where i like the flares it made.. im not taking the sides of the bed off. alot of people told me just buy fiberglass bed sides but im the average broke person and dont have the ,money for that im spending all the ,money on the suspension. but im loving the look it gives with me pulling the bed sides out my self n flaring them.. and im just going to weld in some support brackets inbetween the inside bed liner and the outside fender so it will keep it popped out.. next i am going to be buying some 4 inch tubing and drawing up a bumper and bending the tube to the way i like it then adding some 2 1/2 in tubeing and add tot hat bumper with it and im leaving the tailgate off so im getting some tubing to weld into the middle of the rear of the bed and up to the top of each side where the tailgate locks at.. will take pics at the end of today to show

[Prerunner1982]

The best is heavy, me and atleast 2-3 of my buddies did mine one night and it was still a handful and I ended up just dragging it on one side between the trailer and truck.

You could also build supports that go under the bed and support it off the frame, with everything disconnected you could drive the truck out from under the bed. I would build a beam going right under the fenderwells to support the middle-back of the bed, then have 2 guys support the front as you drive out. While they are holding it another buddy could slide a frame under the front. Would also make it easier to work on this way.

When removing the bed dont forget to undo the ground strap at the filler necks.. and the ground for the wiring harness at the rear of the bed, and lastly the vent tube for the rear axle.

[Lated]

I would say you need four people. I pulled the bed off my 72 long bed last night with three. I was on one side with two guys on the other. I was only able to hold onto the bed just long enough to clear the back of the frame buy a couple feet and it slipped out of my hands. Luckily no toes were smashed and the bed was already headed for scrap. One person on each corner would have been much better. Good luck

[79underconstruction]

well i got the bed off me and a buddy got it it was hard but we handled it.. now theres a problem though.... i took the bed off undid all th wiring n stuff n now i needa goto work with this truck tomarrow but i cant get the reaer break lights or the blinkers to work. the blinkers worked for a minute in the front then the blinkers quit working all together.. but even when i turn the blinkers on they dont come on inside the truck ro anything why is this? is there a relay switch ro something i could have burned out for them some how? i checked all the fuses in my fuse box under the dash none of them r bad.. and this is jus pissin me why i cant figure this out.. so if ANYONE can help it would be much appreciated

[fosheec]

Did you try changing the flasher relay on the upper left hand corner of the fuse panel. Looks like a silver colored cylinder. Pretty cheap, widely available and very easy to change.

[Prerunner1982]

I would check the ground wire first. It was originally grounded to the bed, now it needs to be grounded to the frame.