Ready to install bed..have questions

[suburban99]

Be gentle please...
Truck is a 1962 C10 long box, with a 5.3 and 4l60 conversion. Truck is running now. I need to install the bed. Truck was in pieces when I bought it, but I have all the pieces...i think. We sat the bed on when I trailered it home.

Questions:
-Do I need to install wood before I re attach the box?
-I have all the crossmembers and frame painted, can I attach the box without changing the wood and have the cab line up?
-Patina on this truck is good with little rust and I have no intention of painting it...do I need to remove the fenders from the bed to install it?
In the picture the bed is just sitting on the frame..

[Clyde65]

the bed actually is held up by the wood. You can place the bed on the truck, then start putting the wood in where it goes.

BTW, your gonna LOVE the LSx motor you have!!!!!

[Lugnutz65]

Originally Posted by suburban99

Be gentle please...
Truck is a 1962 C10 long box, with a 5.3 and 4l60 conversion. Truck is running now. I need to install the bed. Truck was in pieces when I bought it, but I have all the pieces...i think. We sat the bed on when I trailered it home.

Questions:
-Do I need to install wood before I re attach the box?
-I have all the crossmembers and frame painted, can I attach the box without changing the wood and have the cab line up?
-Patina on this truck is good with little rust and I have no intention of painting it...do I need to remove the fenders from the bed to install it?
In the picture the bed is just sitting on the frame..

I am in the middle of installing mine on my 1965 short stepper C10. It has been a lot of trial fitting and then disassemble. I am sure others have their methods, but here is what I basically did.

1. Cut the wood
2. Assemble the complete bed (minus cross members) on jack stands. Make sure the garage floor is level and then make adjustments to square the bed.
3. Lay the wood in the bed with the bed strips as a mock up.
4. Weld the angle strips onto the bed sides if they are not on there already. A fleet will be different than my step but I think it still has the angle strips.
5. As mentioned above, the bed "box" is actually resting on the wood bed. Make sure the angle strips are solid.
6. Align the outermost wood strips with the head panel and rear cross sill and then drill holes for the carriage bolts that go through the outermost wood strips.
7. Next, place the cross sills onto the frame.
8. With the 4 sides of the box assembled (minus tailgate), set it on top of the cross sills. Those outermost wood strips on each side will support the box on the cross sills.
9. Install the angle strip carriage bolts thru the wood and into the cross sills.
10. Adjust to make everything square before you tighten anything too much.
11. Mark the bed to frame bolt holes on the wood and drill those. Mar-K has an instruction sheet on their website for that.
12. There are a ton of bed strip carriage bolts that go through the cross sills. I'll just say that having a helper push them through from above while you do the washer and nut from below is worth a couple of free pizzas.

Take a look at my BLOG and you will see that I'm almost done the bed. It will go on this week. Fenders too hopefully.

[par4tom]

Another way you can do this if you're not worried about scratching the paint, is to stand the bed up on its end on the floor, install the cross members and then install the wood. Makes it easier to tighten the bolts.

While its been a few years since I did one, it seems to me that we had to make sure the bed was square before tightening down the cross members. As I recall, we measured diagonally from both corners, when both measurements were the same, we tightened down the cross members.

Chime in here someone if you have a better way...