One more question for tonight about my bed

[donthekawguy]

All of the bolts that bolt down the fenderwells just spin when I turn them. What would be the easiest way to get the bolts out. I can grind off the ones that stick out but the ones where the nut is in the indention in the cross brace will not be fun. Maybe cut an X into the head and chisel off? Give me some ideas and I will try them all.

[Sharps40]

When the wood is rotten I go in from the top with bolt cutters and snip em out.

[wayno]

I needed to take the fender wells off my stepside and knowing that any misses were going to be body work I needed to do later, I went out and bought a new drill bit and just drilled them out thought it was going to be a pain but it went rather quickly but definitely use a new bit. My 2 cents.

[Sharps40]

Sorry. Thought ya ment the bed. Drill em out. Or use a nut splitter where accessable.
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[1963c-10]

I drilled my bolts off when I did the spare tire fender conversion. Easiest way I could find. Then replaced all fender bolts w/stainless steel hardware

[donthekawguy]

Cool thanx guys. It's gunna suck but I'll get it done. I can get to most of them with a grinder but the rest are gunna be rough. I'll be posting pics tonight after I make a tool to change the wheel on my grinder.

[jayoldschool]

If you are replacing the bed wood, just use a jig saw or sawzall to cut the wood, so a chunk stays with the wheel tub. That way you can remove the tub and just use a grinder to buzz the nuts off from the bottom.

[billd5string]

A previous owner on my truck had broken the old wood out with a hammer already, so I used a big pair of bolt cutters. I had already tried using a die grinder with a cut-off wheel and drilling the heads off, neither worked well and were pretty slow. But when I bought the bolt cutters, I got all the bolts out in a half hour or so. That's definately what I would do if I had to do it again.

[spacedebris]

This is gonna sound weird but it works.


If the heads are where you can get a socket on them.

What you do is get a very cheap socket (one that you dont mind loosing) and a cheap vice grip .

Tack weld the socket in the jaws of the vice grips so it wont turn. Place the socket over the bolt head to keep it from turning and drill through the hole in the socket. This way the socket keeps the bolt from spinning while drilling it out. In this way you can simply drill off the head of the bolt.

[donthekawguy]

Originally Posted by spacedebris

This is gonna sound weird but it works.


If the heads are where you can get a socket on them.

What you do is get a very cheap socket (one that you dont mind loosing) and a cheap vice grip .

Tack weld the socket in the jaws of the vice grips so it wont turn. Place the socket over the bolt head to keep it from turning and drill through the hole in the socket. This way the socket keeps the bolt from spinning while drilling it out. In this way you can simply drill off the head of the bolt.

I'm trying to get the bed bolts out. They are the ones that hold the fender wells on and the wood strips so the heads are almost flush with the surface. Of course the PO got all the easy ones! The hard ones are going to be the ones where the nut is up in the cross braces. I think I'll chisel out the wood and beat on it with a hammer that always works right?

[donthekawguy]

Well I used a grinder and cut a bunch of the nuts through the middle and then used an air chisel to cut them off. The deeper recesses of the cross bars that hold the bed to the frame were harder. I had to use the air chisel on those. I messed up the end holes on all of them but I will pound them back into shape and weld them back together so they will hold the bolts. I only messed up one hole on the small bed strips but it will hide under the fender well when I put it back together. I also found some wood at a decent price. 1x8x16 oak for 20 bucks a board. I was going to use pine but it was the same price at Lowes so I'll go with oak.

[mMad Dawg]

I took the bed off of a 82 and every bolt turned on me . I ended up welding some nuts to the bolt head and was finally able to undo them. Hope this helps.

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by spacedebris

This is gonna sound weird but it works.


If the heads are where you can get a socket on them.

What you do is get a very cheap socket (one that you dont mind loosing) and a cheap vice grip .

Tack weld the socket in the jaws of the vice grips so it wont turn. Place the socket over the bolt head to keep it from turning and drill through the hole in the socket. This way the socket keeps the bolt from spinning while drilling it out. In this way you can simply drill off the head of the bolt.

I like this idea!

Originally Posted by mMad Dawg

I took the bed off of a 82 and every bolt turned on me . I ended up welding some nuts to the bolt head and was finally able to undo them. Hope this helps.

this is what I did.

[donthekawguy]

No welder so I had to man handle them. lol That would have sucked cuz I had probably 20 of them stuck.