2004 Tacoma SR5 flatbed build

Had to do something with my OEM bed due to the rust...bed rusted off the rear 4 mounts and was trying to leave this earth with every bump. I'll post what pics I took and try to give some detail. Any questions, comments or concerns are welcome and appreciated!

The old bed, plastic liner was the only reason anything didn't to through the floor.

Rough outline to see if everything was lining up. Crossmembers are 2"x4" tubing, sides are 2"x2" angle and front/rear is 2"x3" angle. All metal is 3/16 thick.

Made spacers to lift the crossmembers off the mounts 2.25" out of 2"x4" tubing and a plate I cut out of the 2"x2" angle. Welded the plate onto the tubing and drilled a hole into it for a 1/2" bolt to go into the frame mounts. Welded a nut to the inside of the spacer since it is covered by the crossmembers.

Added a third crossmember to the rear. Didn't feel good about how far it was from the original rear crossmember to the end of the bed.

Lining the frame up to get it squared and welded. Decided to do it this way as opposed to trying to square it on the truck, worked out pretty well.

Getting it lined up and tacked onto the crossmembers.

Took it off after everything was lined up and tacked to finish up the welds. Also ground the welds smooth for the outside and then sanded and painted everything.

This is all painted and bolted to the frame. Ready for electrical and the floor.

Just used trailer lights and a bright little reverse light for the signals. Actually had a bit of an issue plugging this in. Naturally I got hyper-flash but not super worried about that. Somehow when I turn reverse on the pass side running light halfway comes on, and it cuts the reverse light's power in half. Checked all the connections and grounds, but couldn't come up with anything. Still haven't figured it out yet but the only thing I found that works is grounding out the pass side running light. That gives me just the driver running light but a full power reverse light, and everything else works fine. Any suggestions on this would be awesome!

This is the semi-finished product. Went with wood because it's cheaper, and just coated it with used motor oil I had laying around. Nothing fancy and easy to keep up/replace. Material is just 2"x8" pine boards.

Last thoughts and things I have to finish up:
- cut off carriage bolts
- hang up wiring
- mount reverse light to underside of wood. Just temporarily mounted to the OG bumper.
- figure out a mounting system for the fueling nozzle. Have to figure out if it fuels from this angle, if not, I have to bring it through the top of the deck and mount it there.
- fix electrical issues with resistors and figuring out my running light.

In the future I'll add a headache rack and fab a bumper to replace the old one. I also want to mount some of the excess 2"x4" tubing to the inside of the sides to be able to mount removable side rails. That one shouldn't be too hard. Just cut out the wood and weld the tubing to the inside of the angle. Let me know what y'all think!

 

Very cool, would look even better with a dove tailed rear end with more lights.