I finally came to a point in time that I decided to try and replace the bed on the F250. This thing has been trashed on the right side for about as long as we had the truck, due to the idea the ole lady didn't pay attention when backing up and chewed the side up against a stationary object. Anyway, we managed to pick up a replacement bed from a dude for $125, a steal for all intents since there are no replacements to be had that are in good shape, anywhere. In the meantime, the replacement bed sat on our utility trailer, as it came home on that trailer and it didn't make sense to remove it only to have to work harder to lift the thing up from the ground onto the trucks frame. By the bed being on the trailer, it was damned near at the level necessary to move it right over. The first thing I had to do was remove the storage toolbox then the bed liner. The toolbox was held on by a pair of 3/8" bolts on each side so that was pretty fast. Other than the weight, it was on the ground in no time. As for the bed liner, there were a couple of large screws that were used to secure the liner to the lip of the bed that ended up having to be ground off due to the things being shitty. Once that was done the bed liner was off and on the ground. Those things are heavier than one may believe them to be. With that it was a matter of removing the nuts from the six large bolts holding the bed to the frame. The impact wrench and a U-joint and extension allowed me to get the nuts off, with a couple needing to be removed the rest of the way. With the bed technically free of the frame, there was a matter of the fuel filler tubes that I removed since they will be reused on the new bed and unplugging the taillight harness. Once that was done it was time to pull the old bed from the truck. This was ideally done near where the new bed was, and outside of the compound fence area. I moved the truck in the main driveway, staging just in front of the trailer with the new bed. My plan was to work the bed off and onto the ground next to the driveway, parking the old bed in the same place where we had different vehicles parked in the past. With a little work I managed to get the bed off the truck frame and onto the ground. To get the new bed installed, I had to park the truck as close to the new bed as possible, with inches to spare between the two. The intent was to work the bed from the trailer, over to the truck's frame without the bed even touching the ground. Once I got the truck staged, it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I gradually worked the new bed off the trailer and got a corner on the truck frame then worked more, going back and forth until I had the bed completely resting on the frame. Once on the frame I got the six bolts back in and secured then installed the fuel filler tubes, then the taillight wire harness. Once the bed was on the frame, everything went pretty fast. With the bed on and everything hooked up I was able to move the truck back to its parking space within the compound. From here I put the bed liner back in and the toolbox back on the top front of the bed. I had to drill four new holes to install the bolts to hold the box down. The tailgate was installed back on as well, completing the whole job. With everything done, now there's a matter of what I want to do with the paint scheme. I could just paint the bed, which may be easier since there isn't much to mask off or go further and paint the cab the color of the bed, going with an all-new paint scheme. It all depends on my mood and how much I've gotten done on other projects as this will determine how much time I want to spend on the project. If I do go with painting the bed white, I may still go forward and just paint the whole truck since it would just make sense to do everything in one shot. We'll see. Either way, the F250 is coming back together in a state of restoration to bring the truck back up to its former glory.
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