Homemade, self made, or altered factory pick up truck beds

I'm getting ready to build a bed for my 1951 F-truck and I'm looking for some good ideas.

I did a thread search for this topic, and all I came up with was older posts with not many pictures or interesting ideas.

I'd like to see what you guys have done, especially top edge treatments, bends and profiles, stake attachments, exterior and/or interior bracing etc.

The truck I'm working on will be an active and used shop truck and daily driver for advertising our business. It's a cab and chassis long bed F-3, and I want to keep it that way...8 foot bed.

I do have some F-1 rear fenders that I will be incorporating into the finished bed, per the stock mounting location, so keep that in mind.

I know there are a lot of talented fabricators here and I'd like to get your ideas and opinions.

My plan is to one day give this truck a mild chop, so a bed that is a little shorter in height, in my opinion, would look more proportional.

Attached are some old pictures of the truck from last July when we drug it out of the barn, before anything was done, and some later ones after some basic stuff has been done, just for reference.

Thanks in advance for your ideas, pictures and opinions.

Dave

 

Look through my build thread and you'll see what I did. I spent about $300 on materials.

 

Looks good Scotty, clean, simple, not overdone, yours is one that I've seen on here before, I like it, Thanks for the input...Dave

 

Only one response? anybody else?

 

www.datinmanjay.com
Check out the home-made bed at this site. You'll have to click on "new page" or something like that to see what Da Tinman does. He's a fellow HAMBer so maybe his ideas might apply to what you're up to.

 

Thanks Bryan and Sarah, It seems like when somebody says " I hear a funny noise coming from my small block chevy, any idea what it could be?" there is a hundred responses, but a question like mine doesn't get anything, leads me to think there is a lot of armchair quarterbacks here, and I do know better, I've seen a lot of great stuff by some.

 

Search for Flyinbrian's(sp?) Diamond T build. He did a really nice job with his.
I will be modifying a factory bed for mine ( see link in sig) but iwas able to get repopped stake pockets ( Chevy) fairly cheap. Good luck.

-mikethegreek -

 

I bought this off a fellow hamber, it's a studebaker bed


I replaced the the front panel with a narrowed one, cut about 9 inches off the back, radiused the sides, pie cut chevy stake pockets on the rear, filled the stake pocket holes built a raised floor support out of 1/8 in. X 1.5 angle and made frame mounts to end up here.

I still need to make a tailgate, the panel under that, floor and the side fillers up front.

 

I built this bed a bed for an F-100 out of 16 guage mild steel, Rectangle, Square tube and angle Iron. Pretty basic but with a few differences like a raised floor to clear the axle. Not as nice a SCOTTYBACCUS's bed but good Enough to pass. The hard part is welding on big flat pieces of metal. Long thin wall tubes warp too if you don't take it easy.
Here's A build pic and finished product.

 

Dirtybird, that is a bitchin' truck.

 

The bed on my 34 was built by Jason Graham.

 

Hey cactus1, I just finished checking out your build thread. very, very nice work, thats the kind of quality I knew was here, Thanks, Dave

 

Heres one I built for a customer, I used repop stake pockets and tailgate, the rest I made. Its all 16 guage, and is a uni-body, there are no subrails.





Its at the paint/body shop now.

 

Good stuff, thanks guys, keep em comin', by the way cactus1, it looks like you've got one of those Miller gold star 300 tig machines like mine, it's a dinasour but it works.

 

Da Tinman, I just checked out yours on your website, Nice job!

unibody, great idea, I've been rolling ideas around on the best way to make it removable and one piece, you may have just solved it for me

 

I measured my dented original, made drawings for the pieces including the sub frame crossmembers , had a sheet metal shop bend up the pieces and assembled this one 30 years ago. You can buy the stamped stake pockets for your bed and bend up the rest.

 

A great big THANKS to everybody, some great ideas and pics, I'll be sure to post some pictures during the building process for everybody

 

Ditto!

 

Hey, thanks man!

 

...here's a 48 F-1 I built a flatbed for, not quite done yet. ..built it low, tires stick up thru bed floor...will get inner fenders made, etc.

 

Here's the box I built for my Diamond T. Sort of combination of their Deluxe Utility box and the standard box. Auburn Speester fenders, aluminum diamond plate inner walls, Cepele marine plywood floor. It's 7'6" long on the bed, tailgate canted forward about 13 degrees, rolled rear pan.

 

I've looked at your truck bed a bunch flynbrian, it is superb!, I may nominate it for the Smithsonian. All kidding aside, it is one of the best I've seen, I like that Diamond T too, Thanks

 

I wanted a lot of custom touches on the bed for my F100, so I built it rather than buy a new one and cut it up.









Fabricated a tailgate





Used seat belt buckles to locate and latch the tailgate.



Less than $500 to build.

Drewski

 

Mine is from Last Refuge:

I altered it some to fit my needs. Still not done though...

 

If you're going to chop it, with a long box, you might want to mock up the box sides first. I used a sheet of tempered Masonite for bedside mockup, and my original idea looked all wrong in real life. I'd planned on about a 6 1/2' box, but that looked wrong with the long wheelbase. Then I thought 8', but that was too way, way too long. Turned out going with 7 1/2', and then leaning the tailgate forward got me just the look I was after. Lots easier to cut masonite and get the line right than throw out a bunch of 16ga...

I think lower box sides would look totally wrong, especially with the long box. Adding a chopped top will make the truck look even longer, and proportions are going to get screwy fast. Lowering the box height would make the truck look strangely out of proportion. Try one with a little higher side, and maybe not quite the full length. How many times will you haul something 8' long? The stock boxes on these to me look a little too low as it is, but I'm wierd...

Brian

 

i may have to steal that belt buckle idea man, that is so sick. lots of good work in this thread as well guys. keep em coming

 

Here's mine for my 34, Mac Hils bedsides and stake pockets. Shortened in front of the wheels and in back to 57". There is no floor because the frame rails are so high. The bed will bolt on to tabs welded on the frame. It will have a factory tailgate. It' not done but you get the idea.

 

You are absolutely right Brian, I will mock up with some masonite or 1/4 inch luan

Drewski, nice bed! especially that taper/angle/bend detail behind the fender, I may steal that

 

My offering is pretty crude when compared to most of what I'v seen in this thread so far. But for what its' worth... I built a simple box with enough room for 3 ammo boxes for the odd tools, spares ect, and 5 Qts of oil. The floor of that box is removable for access to the fuel tank and sender. Oh yeah.. It will get more or less conventional bed sides

 

The bedsides & bed front are new, the tailgate old. I had the new stuff cut & bent by a roofing sheetmetal place. I drilled the holes & fabbed the bracketry to attach the bed to the frame, etc. The whole thing (tailgate included) was probably in the $200 range.