seperating bed seems

[fordman]

has anyone tried or had any luck separating the bed seems on a truck? i have acess to a used panel but i don't want to mess up my bed will separating the seems. i know you can take a air chisel to it and grind forever to get all the rest of it off but is that the best or only to do it. i would like to save the old panel for something else. i even thought about changing the tail light panel assemblies from one bed to another but i'm afraid to try to remove the good ones.

[trukcrazy]

If no one has the answer to this, maybe someone can use an old bed and do a tutorial on this subject just to have an illustrated answer for future reference.

[heep70]

You maybe the first on the forum.

[fordman]

oh boy what fun the air chiesl is. buzz buzz

[crazyace99million]

chisel away, you should be fine; just be careful

[GeorgiaVTS]

I have not tried it on anything older than an 85 model, but I have taken the side off of a couple of trucks from the late 80's. I did it by drilling out the spot welds. It takes a while and quite a few 3/8 bits. They make a spot weld cutter also that goes in a drill. Anyway just drill the welds out and it comes apart fairly easily. Look for hidden welds. The seam in the floor of the bed is welded on the underside in a lip that is turned down. I put the new side in place and used several pairs of vise grips to hold it then refilled the holes I had drilled out. It was not very hard at all, just very time consuming.

[fordman]

i didn't think of that. that might do what i was wanting to do.