Bed Floor removal

jmlcolorado · Sep 14, 2010

So im about ready to chop down my floor inside the bed and im wondering what everyones experiance is in removing the floor from the sides?
There are roughly 6 million spot welds between the bed sides and the floor itself. What is the best way to remove all these dang things apart without damaging the floor. I intend on reusing this floor once the frame is built up.

Help!

jmlcolorado · Sep 15, 2010

Anyone?

Sam_Fear · Sep 15, 2010

I can't keep track of anyones projects anymore, so I have no idea what you have. That said, you might wanna leave a 1" ledge around the entire bed. Just cut it out with a cutting wheel/sawz-all/etc. That way you'll have something to bolt to.

sneakysnake · Sep 15, 2010

Are you talking about the angle strips that is spotwelded to the bedsides or are you using a newer metal floor?I used a flat chisle put a little tension by wedging between, then drill out each spot weld. My angle was all rusty and didnt matter if it got bent up.

jmlcolorado · Sep 16, 2010

sneakysnake said:
Are you talking about the angle strips that is spotwelded to the bedsides or are you using a newer metal floor?I used a flat chisle put a little tension by wedging between, then drill out each spot weld. My angle was all rusty and didnt matter if it got bent up.

Thats a great idea! I want to reuse the bed floor again but its gonna be mounted up about 12"-16" higher once the zee in the frame is done. The floor is in awesome shape and couldnt think of a way to split the floor from the sides witout really chewing up the angle on the floor and the sides of the bed. The only thing i could picture in my head was a spot weld breaker on an air chissel which is way too abraisive to do what i want.

Its gonna be hard to find all the welds but i think ill do what you said.

jmlcolorado · Sep 16, 2010

Sam_Fear said:
I can't keep track of anyones projects anymore, so I have no idea what you have. That said, you might wanna leave a 1" ledge around the entire bed. Just cut it out with a cutting wheel/sawz-all/etc. That way you'll have something to bolt to.

Sam,
My truck is a 50 interational pickup. The floor is attached to the bed sides with a spot weld about every inch (its an 8' bed) but it is in awesome shape and there is no need for a new floor so i wanted to reuse this one. So the goal was to cleanly cut and raise the floor up a bunch once the zee on the frame was done.
I was origionaly thinking of using a skill saw with a metal blade to make a perfectly straight cut along the bed sides, remove the floor, then upon reinstall, use angle metal so the floor could set on it.
I'd have to dress up the edges once the floor is installed.

Actually, by doing it this way, and adding some heavy duty lifters under the floor (simlilar to the rear glass on a trucks topper shell) I could reuse the floor as well as have a fuel tank under the bed floor as well as some storage. Then to access it, i could lift the floor, and the frame, suspension, fuel tank and storage areas could be accessed.

Hum........ i kinda like that idea too.