ok so I want to remove the stake pockets to my 47 ford pickup bed. And want to know some ideas on how I should stiffen around the tail gate . thanks in adavnce for the help
Jack, Google Northern Classic Trucks. The stake pockets do not appear on his web site, but they sell them. Contact Northern Classic Trucks 42786 Mound Rd Sterling Heigths, Mi 48314 Phone 586 254 2835 . Owner's name is Todd. All his stuff is top quality. He builds his own dies and tooling and is a stickler for quality.
Removing the "stake Pockets" normally is filling the holes in the tops of the rails where the stakes from side racks would fit in. Removing the posts from the sides of the bed also removes almost all of the structure of the bed and creates a floppy mess. It's one of those things that might look cute but just flat assed won't work out in the long run unless you replace those posts with posts and bracing on the inside of the bed.
You could utilize the posts that support street signs & you have the lightening holes predrilled for you. But, alas, these are similar to the original stake pockets.
To stiffen the bed, you could take a lesson from poster boards. They are made of two sheets of cardboard held apart by a thin sheet of styrofoam. Individually, they are all very floppy. But glue them all together and they are very stiff and strong. Go to the arts and crafts store, buy a small piece of poster board, and try to bend it. It's amazingly strong, given what it's made of. You could use the same principal on your truck bed. You could sandwich small strips of steel between two sheets of sheet metal. The first sheet of sheet metal is the bed of your truck. Use body cement to glue strips of 1/4 inch steel, about 1 inch apart, to the outside of your pickup bed. That's the filler. Then body cement another sheet of sheet metal over the strips. Now you have two sheets of sheet metal sandwiching a bunch of strips of 1/4 inch steel - just like the poster board, only much stronger. I have no experience doing this, it's just an idea. I do know they use the "poster board" method in fiberglassing to create some very stiff and strong panels on boats and large walk-in coolers. I think what I've suggested would be very strong, but unnecessarily heavy. However, I think we could make it much lighter without sacrificing any strength. I don't think the space filler between the two panels of sheet metal needs to be very strong. (Poster Board uses a flimsy, floppy sheet of styrofoam.) The strength comes from the leverage the sheet metal has by being positioned slightly apart. The filler's only job is to keep the two pieces of sheet metal from moving independently. Instead of using the heavy 1/4 inch strips of steel for the filler, I think you could use 1/4 inch square thin wall steel tubing. If you wanted to go even lighter, try using plastic, wood, "Great Stuff" expanding foam, or Styrofoam ball impregnated fiberglass(maybe even with a sheet of fiberglass on the outside of the truck bed instead of sheet metal). You could experiment with small scraps of sheet metal before doing something permanent to your truck. Craig's list has free appliances listed quite often. They would be a good source of free sheet metal to experiment with. Then you could sell the remains for scrap metal. A side by side refrigerator sells for about $33.00, and a washer goes for about $21.00 at our local scrapyard. If you don't want to bother with it, you could put your own ad in crag's list. Someone will want to come to your house and pick it up for free. Good luck with your truck and with the street rodder police here on the HAMB. Please post some pictures of your progress and your final solution.
sounds like a plan I will try your ideal on a small scale first but it makes sense ! I will post some photos when done Thanks