Front bed bolts

[Rulebreaker]

I've got a 98 Ranger thats been in Mi it's whole life but has very little rust. I've noticed lately that the front of the box has been bouncing. So today I pulled out the bed liner to discover the 2 front bed bolts are no longer attached to the box as the box had rusted all the way around them. So I cut out the rust and redid the steel in those areas. Is this a common problem? RB

 

[Salinas2.3]

Oh wow, 98? I guess I'm getting ready to inherit that same problem. I'm gonna pick up a 96 extended cab from detroit. Plastic bedliners are the worst things for trucks IMO all they do is hold moisture.

 

[shane96ranger]

I prefer the plastic liners if they go under the bed rails rather than on top. My 96 had a dealer installed Ford bed liner. When I took it out to do the fuel pump, the bed looked brand new still - just a little dusty. My F150 is a spray in liner, and if I have to remove the bed, it will be some work to get the bolts out.

Found a pic of it. The wetness up front is from WD-40.

Sent from a Commodore 64 using a 300 baud modem

 

[Rulebreaker]

 

[Rulebreaker]

 

[fixizin]

RuleB: did you make that excellent repair with just rivets and epoxy, or was there welding involved? Noobs need to know.

PS: That's great comedy the way you staged your "woodpile" photo.

 

[Rulebreaker]

I took a 4' piece of steel and cut it so that it went all the way across the front of the box and had two tabs that stuck out where the rot was. I bent them to a 90 and screwed it to the front of the box. I then screwed the box bolt holes to that piece. They are heaver steel and were not rotted so i could reuse them. I then welded the tabs to the box. Rivets would work as the bedliner hides all of it. I also calked everything with paintable calk. It took me maybe 4 hours. Start spraying wd40 today tho as the bolts were a pain and you cant heat the front left one.