Yesterday I decided to clean the junk out of my truck's bed...had a bunch of empty oil bottles and wood chips ,peices of timber for chock blocks and assorted scrap peices that have been in there "forever"..I decided to haul the spare tire out from under the toolbox and I used a garden hoe to scrape up all the dead leaves and gook under there...all the timbers and blocks of wood that were just put there last fall,had rotted pretty badly already...I found a gray and white tree frog living among all the debris!......................................................................................................................................................................................................My bed is an 8 foot stepside,the one everyone thinks is "fugly"..but the tool box up front makes it appear shorter,so its not that hideous...it has a wooden floor with the 2x6 boards...I found a peice of 1/4" thick aluminum diamond plate that just fit inside the sides perfect,but it was only long enough to cover about 2/3 of the bed,stopping just shy of the toolbox by about a foot...after that point,it only had the original wood planks .......................................................................................................................................................................................................The boards looked fine from under the truck,but they didn't fare so well under the toolbox ,all that crap held water ,and the boards were all slimy on the top side--when I dragged the hoe across them,I saw some wood peel off quite easily...when I stepped forward to take a closer look at them,my foot went right thru one board,and tapping on the rest near that one also made them blow thru like they were made of wet cardboard!..even the steel channel the bolts go in had rusted away in places.......
........................................................................................................................................................................................Now I'm torn between just ripping the dam bed off it and scrapping it,and putting my old flatbed back on it I saved from my '77 GMC..I trashed the drivers side fender a few winters ago while plowing when a telephone pole got clipped backing up,and the steps are all rotted,I covered them with some peices of an old diamond plate aluminum running board to strengthen then enough to not just fold over if you go to step on them....I dont really like the small bed the stepside has,it limits what you can haul in it,and about the only reason I kept the stepside bed is because it was in decent shape when I first got it,and its an uncommon one,you dont see them too often..................................................................................................But the flatbed is almost as shabby from being parked under pine trees in my backyard,it will need a new floor,it was just plywood,and the 4" channel iron I made it from has lost about half of its thickness to rust,but it still plenty sturdy..plus it has a electric winch/crane mounted on it that I missed a lot after I got rid of the truck it was on....but I'm not very enthusiastic about trying to unbolt the old bed and the flatbed ,paint and re-floor it,and I may as well do the frame of the truck too while the bed is off--wouldn't be hard to make it a dump bed too,I have most of what I'd need to do it...except a strong back and $$$$$$$.....................................................................................................Dont know if I'd survive an undertaking like that now,and the rest of the truck is still a "pile" even after all that was done...with my mom sounding like she's on deaths doorstep,I am hesitant to start tearing the truck apart,because I fear I wont be able to put it back together ,and its not worth the effort to DO it ..I dont need a truck all apart in the driveway when its time to clear out everything when the place gets sold either--I envision doing all that,then end up having no need for the truck after I have to move,and I'll get squat for it when I go to sell it...............................................................................................................................................................................................................what sucks is I've seen nicer trucks with dump bodies being scrapped that could have been bought for under 1000 bucks lately...one 1987 K-30 I saw getting hauled off to the junkyard with a dana 60 and a 350 TBI engine,SM465 and dump body,with a fisher plow frame (no blade),I could have got with no title for 800 bucks,and it was in much better shape than my truck was...the only bummer was the "missing" title,which I could have probably gotten for it ,and the fact I didn't have 800 bucks !....
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........................................................................................................................................................................................Now I'm torn between just ripping the dam bed off it and scrapping it,and putting my old flatbed back on it I saved from my '77 GMC..I trashed the drivers side fender a few winters ago while plowing when a telephone pole got clipped backing up,and the steps are all rotted,I covered them with some peices of an old diamond plate aluminum running board to strengthen then enough to not just fold over if you go to step on them....I dont really like the small bed the stepside has,it limits what you can haul in it,and about the only reason I kept the stepside bed is because it was in decent shape when I first got it,and its an uncommon one,you dont see them too often..................................................................................................But the flatbed is almost as shabby from being parked under pine trees in my backyard,it will need a new floor,it was just plywood,and the 4" channel iron I made it from has lost about half of its thickness to rust,but it still plenty sturdy..plus it has a electric winch/crane mounted on it that I missed a lot after I got rid of the truck it was on....but I'm not very enthusiastic about trying to unbolt the old bed and the flatbed ,paint and re-floor it,and I may as well do the frame of the truck too while the bed is off--wouldn't be hard to make it a dump bed too,I have most of what I'd need to do it...except a strong back and $$$$$$$.....................................................................................................Dont know if I'd survive an undertaking like that now,and the rest of the truck is still a "pile" even after all that was done...with my mom sounding like she's on deaths doorstep,I am hesitant to start tearing the truck apart,because I fear I wont be able to put it back together ,and its not worth the effort to DO it ..I dont need a truck all apart in the driveway when its time to clear out everything when the place gets sold either--I envision doing all that,then end up having no need for the truck after I have to move,and I'll get squat for it when I go to sell it...............................................................................................................................................................................................................what sucks is I've seen nicer trucks with dump bodies being scrapped that could have been bought for under 1000 bucks lately...one 1987 K-30 I saw getting hauled off to the junkyard with a dana 60 and a 350 TBI engine,SM465 and dump body,with a fisher plow frame (no blade),I could have got with no title for 800 bucks,and it was in much better shape than my truck was...the only bummer was the "missing" title,which I could have probably gotten for it ,and the fact I didn't have 800 bucks !......
