I helped a friend (co-worker) pull off his F-350 truck bed to repair some damage sustained by previous owner. Bob (my friend) just purchased this truck form a guy in pheonix about two weeks ago. It appears the guy was hauling something longer than the bed and backed into something stationary resulting in pushing the beds forward bulkhead into the cab. The cab wasn't too bad but the bed separated at the spot weld seam (along the bottom seam) and also created a pretty good bow along the entire top rail of said bulkhead. The previous owner had thrown down a big floor mat concealing the separation and was asking $29K for the 2008 F-350 6.4 power stroke with 100K miles. Bob noticed the forward bulkhead bow and pull back the bed matt and saw the drive line through the ripped seam and offered the guy $27K. The guy jumped on it and I jumped on the repairs for Bob.
It went fairly smooth with the exception of one stubborn T-50 bolt (drivers side front). I had presoaked all eight bed bolts but could not access this particular bolt as the fuel tank was directly below this bolt. I removed the rest of the bed bolts before increasing the the impact to#5 for the last bolt and broke the only two T-50 I had. I cut the head off with a 5" cutoff wheel. I had just bought four of these wheels and was curious how well they would work as they are only .040" thick. It worked well and the bed came off without issue.
We set the bed on four horses and began to massage the damage and close up the seam. He plans on Rhino lining the bed once all is done and it should be hard to notice.
I should add the bow was pulled back prior to removing the bed. I used the fork lift as an anchor and ran two 2" webbing straps and a chain come-along and pulled the top rail back in-place.
The cabs damage was minimal but had paint chafing from contacting the bed. Cleaned up and sprayed some white paint for corrosion control.
Now we had to remove that stubborn bolt (stud now after cutting the head off). Now I had access to the threads and soaked it with PB Blaster but large vise grips would not bight on the harder stud. I covered the fuel tank with a fire blanket and welded a 1-1/8" nut to the stud and used a large socket with the impact at 125 psi and set to #5. The heat generated by the plug weld was a big help.
The stud removed.
The back side of bed after closing the ripped seam and re-spot welding (plug weld).
Once the bed is back on he would not have access to the frame rail to install the new capture nut with the fuel tank in the way, so we used a nut plate and bolt from a rear mount that provided full access to frame rail after the fact. He will need to pick up a new nut/bolt from dealer.
Job was completed in four hours (including running to town for a new T-50).
I then painted Mark's (mksj) new mill rolling base. Its a dark grey hammer tone finish and should look nice with his light grey mill.
The real take away is the technique to deal with frozen or broken fasteners, many times folks turn to drilling out said fasteners, but when you have enough to work with, remember the welding/ nut trick.
Another good day and even better with my son by my side.
Turn and burn
Paco
