Angled Bed Rails

[jkvincent]

I (think) I removed every bolt/nut holding the Angled rails down and they won't budge....WTF! What am I missing?

[torchlight]

They are spot welded on there.

[jkvincent]

Thanks for the quick reply. I thought it strange that (Classic Parts) offered Angled Rail covers...I should have known.

[Old Crow]

LMC offers both covers and replacement rails. I believe the new replacement rails bolt to the bed sides without welding, or may be spot welded back in place.

[jkvincent]

That's an idea, maybe I could drill the "spots", then bolt back. It's rusting pretty good between the angles & bed sides. Thanks

[fisherman420]

Just removed mine a couple weeks ago. They were spot welded about every 6 inches along each rail. I used a spot weld cutter on a cordless drill along with hammer and chisel.

[jkvincent]

Wow, every 6", so 12-14 spots aside?? Here's another question, why a Spot Weld Cutter as opposed to a regular drill bit? I guessing maybe the drill bit wants to "walk" trying to cut thru the weld??

[fisherman420]

Originally Posted by jkvincent

Wow, every 6", so 12-14 spots aside?? Here's another question, why a Spot Weld Cutter as opposed to a regular drill bit? I guessing maybe the drill bit wants to "walk" trying to cut thru the weld??

Yes it surprised me as well, took me almost two hours from start to finish. I had a spot cutter available so used that. It has a center pin that keeps it aligned while cutting around the spotweld and doesn't cause too much damage to the underlying surface. You can use a drill bit roughly the same size as the spot weld but either way.... make sure to use a good center punch to keep the cutter or drill bit from walking

[1project2many]

The spot weld cutter cuts around the spot. Once the welded pieces are separated you can grind the remaining weld out and leave the backing panel intact. Drill bits are angled so drilling removes a portion of the backing panel. In some cases this difference is important.

[_Ogre]

if your not going to save the angle just grind off the spots
either way you have to grind off the spot welds
no sense buy a spot weld cutter if your not saving the part

[Clarance J]

Hello jkvincent, if you like to make your own tool for the spotweld cutter you could grind it yourself. I used a 5/16" drill and cut it down almost flat. You will need to experiment a little bit to get the cutting edge right when grinding. This one works very well and I have used it on my truck and will be using it on my bed angle rails soon. Just center punch spotweld and drill. It only cuts through one layer of material and only leaves a little spot on the part you want to save. The holes later will be used to plug weld the parts back together.

[Russell Ashley]

I replaced my side rails with unpolished stainless from Mar-K. They have welding instructions on their website but I elected to bolt mine on so that I could be sure the bed sides would not rust around the welds. I sprayed on bedliner before bolting them on. I used one half inch long, quarter inch, stainless button head screws to hold them on. I put them about every six inches but spaced the ones at the front and rear so that no bolt heads show on the outside of the bed. The screws take a square or Phillips driver. Some might not like the look but it works for me since there's so many other bolt heads showing in the bed, and I wasn't going for show since I do actually haul stuff in it occasionally. I painted my bed wood black as original on these trucks. The nuts and lock washers take about three eights of an inch so you do loose that much tire clearance between tire and bed side.