Making A Truck Bed - Weekend Update

http://image.classictrucks.com/f/tec...ed+fenders.jpg

From the September, 2011 issue of Classic Trucks / By Jim Rizzo
So, that ol’ pickup of yours needs a bed, does it? Well, mine did too. The only problem is I didn’t have the cash on hand to pick up the phone and order one of those fancy aftermarket assemblies—and I’m guessing there’s a good chance you don’t either. So at this point the best option is to take stock and check out what we’ve got to see what’s repairable and what’s not. In my case, after a bit of close inspection I realized (as will most of you) that though the bed was pretty beat, there were portions that were still usable—thank goodness. On mine, about the only pieces worth saving (or that I had at all) were the two side panels, the largest and most expensive parts of a bed. Sure, they’d seen more than their share of abuse over the years, and if money was no object I’d definitely replace ’em, but like I said, money is an issue and thankfully, all in all, they seemed repairable (especially since from the outside three-quarters of ’em are covered by the rear fenders).
So, it was with this in mind I whipped out my dog-eared LMC Truck catalog and carried it out back to the dwindling pile of parts that’d come with the ’57 when I first got a hold of it (as you may recall, mine was the remains of a friend’s parts truck so I really started out with everything deemed unusable by its prior owner). I dug through the pile and pulled out what pieces I thought were bed parts and soon found that about the only pieces that I had were the two bedsides. The tailgate was missing and the front panel was so bowed that it was useless. This discovery (and the exploded view of the bed shown in the LMC Truck catalog) made it pretty easy to identify just what I’d need to whip together my cargo bed.
In short order I had compiled my shopping list and then headed to the garage to sit down and do some figuring. I compared the total cost of the LMC Truck parts list to the cost of a complete aftermarket bed assembly and in my case, when shipping costs and all were taken into consideration, it looked like individual replacement parts were the way to go (by a small margin mind you, but hey, these days dollar bills count). So take a look at how I was able to sew together a cargo bed for the ’57 in one Saturday afternoon thanks to my trusty LMC Truck catalog and a bit of help from my dear ol’ pop. CT



Read more: Making A Truck Bed - Classic Trucks Magazine