Stripped out bed bolts?

[Estanley]

I pulled the bed off my 72' the other day and had problems with the bed bolts. The square holes in the bed itself stripped (now a couple of them are round holes). I see that Brothers has bed bolt sets with some type of offset washer with square holes. How are these supposed to be used and is this the the best way to solve me problem.

[johnnyp]

Good question - what's up with the offset hole washers? Chevy Duty lists these as:
"original type flat washers with offset
square hole". The original washers on my pickup aren't offset.

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72 Sierra Grande - "Maych"

If a man speaks in the middle of a forest and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

Forget about "do it right the first time". Do it wrong the first time to learn how, then do it right the second time.

[imaindianoutlaw]

I got one off on my truck the rest got with the sawz all

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Charles W. Hein
S. Williamsport PA

imaindianoutlaw@yahoo.com

REFRIGERATION TECH

1971 Rolling chassis

FOR SALE
1963 Pontiac Tempest
1965 Pontiac GTO {SOLD}
1956 Pontiac 2 dr complete for parts

[Yellow Cheyenne]

I'm not sure, but are they using the offset washer setup for the wood floor beds? As far as getting the old ones off, I chose to tighten them until they twisted off. Worked on most but a couple of the nuts stripped out before twisting the bolt off. Fortunatley, I was able to use bolt cutters to cut the nuts off of those two. If you have a welder, you can weld a 5/16" or 3/8" nut on top of the bolt and then use a wrench to keep the bolt from spinning. Too late to help you now, but maybe someone else will benefit. On the rounded out holes, if you are installing new bolts you could probably put some epoxy on the bottom side of the head on the bolt, tighten until it is snug or wants to turn. Come back a day later when the epoxy has dried and finish tightening them.

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'72 Cheyenne. AC, PS, PB, Rear slider window, tilt. Light yellow (grapefruit yellow according to new sales literature from '72)
'70 Olds 442 convertible
'70 Olds Rallye 350
'72 Olds Cutlass convertible

[Nichboy]

I had the same problem on a 71. I used a file to square of the rounded holes and used the next size larger bolts(sorry don't remember the sizes)i wasn't able to torque them down real tight so i used lock washers and lock nuts. worked great.

[COBALT]

The off-set washers are used for wood beds, since it's difficult to marry the planks to the frame brackets. As the carriage bolts twist as you tighten the nuts on the other side the washers bind against the countersunk holes in the wood, and keep the carriage bolt from turning.

Not for metal beds.

My wood bed was so bad during Easter I went to Home Depot and bought a huge bag of bolts, washers and nuts, and went to work replacing the ones that were in the worst shape. I basically soaked them with penetrating oil, and loosened them either until I got the nut off or the bolts broke. It'll be different when I actually do the restore, but I didn't want my bed comming off the frame! lol

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'69 3/4 ton C20 2wd w/ 350ci/400THM and a wood bed!
'69 3/4 ton Custom 20 2wd w/ ORIGINAL 350ci/4sp Manual and a wood bed (parts beast).
Seattle, WA.

*See pics of my trucks and project at www.webshots.com!


[This message has been edited by new69owner (edited May 22, 2002).]