Bed removal help - Middle bolts spinning

I've had my bed off 4 times when I was building my aux fuel tank...it's a fairly large pain in the ass. Some things that helped were removing the mud flaps and the tail gate. It's a good idea to remove it with more than a total of two people.

 

Sucks, I jut found a spinning bolt under the cab..

 

FOUND IT! Oh my goodness, how did I not think of this... It's so obvious since the rear bolts have one of these to prevent the bolt from spinning. When I saw that and then realized this was not the case, I thought "Gee, why didn't they just do that for all of them?" Well, now you can do a mod and make it so

I'll be taking my bed off shortly and if this happens, at least I know what the solution is beforehand! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEme2BZdPho

 

All my passenger side bolts were fine, but on the driver's side the front and middle bolts backed out most of the way and now just spin. Rather than going through the top, has anyone gone through the bottom bed rail with a dremel to gain access to the nut? Does anyone who has gone the hole saw route know what the nut looks like? I'd like to cut a window in the bottom bed rails and just stick a wrench in ... For reference, the circled area is where I'd like to dremel out a window.

The worst part of this is the driver's side bolts backed out most of the way before the welds snapped and they started spinning. I spent hours pressing the bed up with my legs while wielding an air impact wrench to no avail. Finally, I took a look at the passenger side, and the frame holes are bigger there, more than big enough for the bolt head to pass through if the washer wasn't in the way. Three dremel cutting discs and three drill bits later, I got the washer off on the driver's side front ... and the frame holes on that side are smaller. Joy.

 

Just as an update, I ended up cutting the heads off the bolts as well. The angles were too tight to cut a window with my dremel, and too near the gas tank for the amount of sparks to be comfortable. I'll probably still cut the window now that the bed is off, but it seems to be double-lined.

 

I’m looking at removing my bed but the bed has been sprayed with linex coating.

Do the bolts come through the floor of the bed?

How would I remove the bolts with linex?

Or can I just remove the nuts from the underside?

Or are they all welded?

 

late reply, didn't see it before!
there were no bolts going through my bed before i had the lineX spray this summer

how long ago did you get the LineX?

i think i am going to hit the salvage yard first to take one off there before i try to tackle mine

 

Remove the bed a long time ago.

There are no bolts going there the bed or linex

 

did you have to undo the wiring harness clips or not?

 

Just the bolts. Will have to use air wrench they rusted. Yes disconnect wiring from bed. Let it hang and use d rings in bed, loop rope through and use a winch from top of garage to raise up, then move truck out garage= chassis cab. I treated frame at this point. You know what I mean the hoist from harbor freight

Spinning bolts heat and chisel I guess

 

Hello I’m in the process of removing my bed to access the fuel pump and sending unit but I can’t get the last two bolts out. It’s hard fitting a socket in there to loosen it up with an impact. I don’t know what else to do. Any advice would be appreciated. p.s. I’m also new to this forum and to the world of trucks

 

Yes, for the tail lights I removed the rear tail lens and unclipped the wire harness that’s attached to the bed

 

Heat it up with a propane torch. It looks like there’s a lot of rust then an impact after it’s heated up

 

Got them off!