I am mounting a bed on my 49. I have all the new mounting hardware, but I'm not sure if there should be double wood blocks on the front of the bed. It seems as if there is too much space between he front crosspiece and the frame or am I doing something wrong? Bob
There should be 2 spacers in the front and 2 in the back. The books say that they are 2 1/4" thick, but that's not necessarily so. What is important is getting the bed sides parallel with the runningboards. I ended up using blocks that were 2 9/16" in the front and 1 15/16" in the back on mine.
Ken is right, you kinda have to go with the fit of the filler panels that go between the top of the running board and the bottom of the bed side. The running board is bolted rigidly and then the bottom of the filler is bolted to it so the only thing left for a proper fit is the bed spacing. We have made a LOT of custom blocks to get this distance right. I'm lucky to have a supply of cypress wood like the original but other wood will last years. If it needs to be raised then steel shims work fine and they can be trimmed if too long. Patience is good here.
Try cutting wood wedges & driving them in on top of your blocks. When it is just right ; take a measure and cut your wood to the desired thickness with a table saw. Carpenters use wood wedges all the time installing doors.
Thanks for the help everyone. I haven't got to work on it this week. But hopefully on the weekend I can. At least I know what to try now. It just didn't make sense. The pickup I'm rebuilding didn't have the bed with it. I bought the one I'm putting on it in pieces, so I really didn't have anything to go by. I keep you posted on the progress.
