Well, noone said things would be easy. Trevor and I have been working on the truck for the past two weeks a solid 4 to 8 hours per day, five days a week for the last two weeks on the bed. Several problems that we have been working out. When we got the truck, the bed was dissasembled, with a wood bed kit. Everyone must have assumed that it would all go together, as it was never truly assembled. I had my doubts, so we set out to assemble it from to to bottom. several things came up that we did not like. Stock, the mounting tabs of the bed sides sit on top of the wood- not very nice looking. The first thing we did, was to assemble the wood alone, and welded nuts to the frame to get the whole bed square, and to align it correctly. The problem was that someone had already welded nuts on previously, without drilling down into the frame. The bolt were going down into the nuts, but would hit the frame. Most of the bolts had to be blasted off, holes drilled, and new ones welded down. Next came the sides. All of the holes on the sides were welded shut, the side was lowered 3/4" so that it would be mounted underneath of the wood, like so
Then we discovered that there was a nasty gap at the back
So a piece was made to fit in between, which was welded to the bed side. At the same time, we cleaned up the outside appearance by welding in two studs, and welding the holes shut on the outside of the bed.
Set in place, it looks like this
And the over all, clean and organized look of the bed/tailgate section when mounted becomes
Thursday night, we had the whole bed assembled by 9PM, and the sides looked good. Then the horrors came. First off, the supports to make the stepside steps functional were welded on messy the first time, and too long the second time, so they will need trimming. However, we had remounted the fenders for whatever reason when we first got the truck. The fenders had been put on without the steps being in place, which now need to be remounted yet again. The side must line up with the step, which must line up with the fender, which must line up with the side. It's a vicious circle I tell you. As well, the boards did not pass quality control, as you can see there are some considerable drips and waves in the board itself. These will be stripped down and redone in the next week or so. As well, due to our side relocation, the two end board no longer fit. Their contours aren't quite right either, so new ones will be made from 2X6 oak like the rest of the bed. Our instructor, Gary Komaniecki, is currently in St Paul. A group of VICA students went to the state competition Friday to Sunday, and will be competing in events such as automotive, cabinet making, small gas engines, and opening and closing ceremonies. Wish the best of luck, and I hope to see them go on to the national competition. Thats a wrap for this week, more after we get the rear tidied up, boards restained, fenders fit, and front end in place. Later.
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Rochester VICA
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