Spent the day disassembling the box

[FORDification]

It's a little after 10PM here, and I just walked in the door, after spending the day getting started disassembling the '72 SWB box from my latest parts truck. A week or so ago I spent several hours closely looking over both boxes (this one and my original) and then spent another 30 minutes today doing the same thing, trying to formulate a plan as to which box to use or whether to combine the best pieces of each into one good one. I finally decided to pull them both apart and reassemble the good pieces. Since the side panels on the '72 were crap but the underside was good, it's going to donate the bed floor and supports. My original '67 bed will supply the side and end panels.

Here's a shot as I was getting the '72's bedsides removed. You can see that the inside of the bedside is beat up....I found that I could break the spot-welds pretty easily by using a BFH. Made a long chore much more tolerable:



...and here's a shot of the finished product, after MANY hours of work:



I then got started disassembly of the '67 bed. This is going to take quite a bit longer, as I have to be much more careful not to mess up the side panels...and many of the spotwelds are very difficult to get too. I decided to use the air chisel and remove the bed floor, leaving a little bit of metal around the perimeter. Then I can go back and carefully drill out the spotwelds and remove the excess. By the time this is completed I'm actually going to have quite a few man-hours invested into this box.

I have a bunch more pictures, but I'm tired, dirty and hungry, so I'm going to hit the showers and then get a bite to eat. I'll probably go ahead and post a project update page tomorrow evening with the additional pictures.

[72hiboy4x4]

your dedication to doing a job right continues to amaze me!

(I woulda just waited till I found a good box,cause I'm just that lazy )

[wolfpack]

[bumpside-smitty]

Keith,
You have given me encouragement to replace one side that needs replaced on my truck bed. Dumb question did you know that they make a special drill bit for drilling out spot welds? I have about wore mine out replacing the cowl in front of the windshield on my 71.
Smitty

[bumpside-smitty]

Keith,
I was able to obtain my spot weld drill bit from the local Carquest. The cost was about $20 and they even had replacable tips that you could purchase for about $5 each. I just want to say thanks again for giving me the opportunity to see the thing apart, it gives me encouragement to take mine apart.

[FORDification]

I'm working on a project update page as we speak....I should have it posted before going to bed tonight. It'll give you some more to check out in that regard.

[FORDification]

The project update page is completed:

http://www.fordification.com/my67-p52.htm

[390Nut]

Hrmmm, looks like fun!

Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a passenger side bed cap in good shape, would you?

Mine got creased right at the trim line next to the tailight housing during a run-in with a transit bus a few years ago...

[FORDification]

Well, spent the day in the shop today finishing up the disassembly on the '67 box, the one that's going to donate the sides, end and wheelwells. Here's a shot of the box with the bed floor completely removed:



This took me about 4 hours to get done, since drilling spotwelds is a very time-consuming task. Once I got done, I decided to get started on the rust repair. There was a rusty spot just in front of the passenger-side end cap that I decided to hit first. After cleaning up the area and cutting out the rust, I hit the wire wheel to some paint blisters on the bed sides, and discovered that some of the rust pitting actually went all the way through!



It's definitely starting to look like I'm biting off more than I want to chew here! The '68 LWB parts truck sitting in front of my shop has some decent side panels, so I'm going back to the shop tomorrow to scope them out and see if they'll be useable, and if so, then I'll just go ahead and replace the whole panel.

I just posted a project update page with a bunch of pictures...go ahead and take a look, and tell me I'm freakin' crazy for even thinking about attempting this.

http://www.fordification.com/my67-p53.htm

[fordman]

i'm wondering how much of the lwb bed side would a person have to cut off to make it fit on to a shortbed floor. and how hard would it be to weld the panels back on after being cut down to size. i guess that would depend on how good the cut down process went. ok i'm ready to see more. keep going.

[FORDification]

This graphic should illustrate the differences. Yes, it'll be a lot of work....just not sure if it'll be worth the effort. Heck, maybe I'll just slap a flatbed on it and call it good!

I didn't make it to the shop today. My body was sore all over from all the physical labor yesterday, so I'm just relaxing in front of the computer today and playing.

[jzjames]

Youre a good man Kieth, cause you love a challenge!

[1970F250]

got to love the BFH

[mk]

Those boxes are extremely rare here in Alberta. I think the flaresides outnumber them by quite a margin. When I was in Vegas last year for
the SEMA show I took some time to check out the local wreckers. There was a very nice 67 short box at one of them that I sure wish I could have brought home with me.

mike

[dotcentral]

Keith, one of the truck magazines (classic truck or custom classic truck) had an article on cutting down a long bed box to make a short bed box. The actually box, not the just the frame. Its been awhile, so don't know if its still online. I have slow AOL dialup or I'd check for you. Results looked good in the article, but they said it was a lot of work.