1936 Pickup bed floor question

As for the only two bed mounting bolt holes... I countersunk the holes which removed most of the small dimple that was in the panel. I then used my dimple dies to form the correct, larger dimple, leaving almost no sign of the smaller dimple.
 

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All done... I still have to remove some of the warping from the panel. These things come pretty wonky from Mack Hils. In the future I will make my bed floors from scratch. This will allow me to pre-stretch the areas that get the beads, dimples, etc. and will allow the floor to lay perfectly flat unlike this one. Next up, fix original bed side panels and start riveting.
 

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Holes are now perfectly aligned with the holes in the frame. I bolted the bed floor to the frame and the bolts dropped right thru. I have no clue how any of Mack Hils beds fit these frames without serious hole slotting on the frame. Two of the holes were off by 1/2”. On to the other bed repairs followed by trying to figure out which rivets go where.
 

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Thanks ford dream. I’m hoping this might help someone that is looking to replace their bed floor and, more importantly, wants it to be correct. I feel the bed floor is an important part of a correctly restored truck.
 
OldGold360 said:
Thanks ford dream. I’m hoping this might help someone that is looking to replace their bed floor and, more importantly, wants it to be correct. I feel the bed floor is an important part of a correctly restored truck.
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Absolutely! And GOOD JOB man looks good! Mac Hils is going to want to hire you away to work for THEM:) I wonder if their dies are worn out or what is going on??
 
Jeff/Illinois said:
Absolutely! And GOOD JOB man looks good! Mac Hils is going to want to hire you away to work for THEM:) I wonder if their dies are worn out or what is going on??
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Hi Jeff. I just think Mack Hils did not measure twice. I'm not sure how they form their bed floors, but if it's stamped with all the dimples in one step, that just means their tooling was off from the beginning. If each dimple surrounding bolt holes is done individually, as I did when I redid them, then they have the incorrect dimensions or they did not measure correctly. Aside from that, their beads are sloppy, dimples the wrong size and incorrectly located, and their is a lot of warpage throughout the panel that I will have to address to get it to lay flat on the wood underlayment. I know others have been happy with their product, but I know of many others that are not. The impression I got when trying to decide which direction to go on my bed floor was that the Mack Hils product is a perfect replacement for my '36 and that I would not be disappointed... I was disappointed. It's far from perfect and it does need work to make it correct as well as bolt up to the frame. I don't say this to irk the Mack Hils fans that are out there. I only share my honest experiences in hopes to help someone that needs to make the same decision I had to not that long ago. I am fortunate that my background is metalshaping and that I have the equipment that makes it easier for me to make the necessary corrections to the bed floor that I needed to in order to make it correct, but also to make it bolt up to my frame.
 
OldGold makes me wish I had kept a '36 PU bed AND rear fenders I gave for free to a pal from high school about 40 years ago. They were mint:(

He was going to restore his Dad's '36 and it never got done.

I've tried to BUY them back from him for years but he is one of those guys that if he has something somebody wants he will never ever part with it.

I keep a close eye on the obituaries. If he dies I can buy them from his son, he doesn't have any interest in old cars!!
 
OldGold360 said:
This made me laugh... does that make me a horrible person?!?
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In NO WAY:):):)

Now if us '35-'36 Ford PU vultures are circling around YOU, be very, very afraid.

As nice as your '36 is going to be, it will take the National Guard to quell the riots from us guys in your driveway fighting over your pickup!!
 
I been reading the post on the bed floor and I'm thinking I might just try to salvage the floor I have. It needs a couple of holes repaired and I was going to seal the wood under the floor and clean up the support. But, the thought of spending that much money, then reworking the parts, getting them to fit, drilling and replacing the rivets has me wondering if I should try to repair it.
 
Bill Wyckoff said:
I been reading the post on the bed floor and I'm thinking I might just try to salvage the floor I have. It needs a couple of holes repaired and I was going to seal the wood under the floor and clean up the support. But, the thought of spending that much money, then reworking the parts, getting them to fit, drilling and replacing the rivets has me wondering if I should try to repair it.
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A man after my own heart.
 
I have a Mac Hils bed on my 35 PU. I bought it, assembled, maybe 35 years ago. Everything fit perfectly and no wrinkles. Maybe his molds are worn a lot by now.
 
If your bed floor isn’t severely damaged by rust, I’d make the repairs and leave the bed riveted together. I’m still not done with my bed but getting close. I’m pretty sure that half the time spent on the restoration of my pickup will be spent on the bed. Also, if I ever do another early pickup, I will not use Mack Hils wood underlayment. It’s not correct and the cuts are performed by an amateur. Buy yourself some good planks and make the cuts yourself. It really wouldn’t be hard. Let me know if you need any repair sections for your bed floor. I machined tooling for the holes with the beaded detail around them. Good luck.
 
thanks, I'll clean off the rust and reevaluate the condition again as well as the wood. It's a little scary to know half the rebuild time is in the bed as the rest is taking a lot also. Just hope I can finish before my clock runs out. lol
 
Well it's a truck so half the vehicle is the bed. Sorry to hear about the one costumer mac hill beds review... it's on my list. First I heard they are not perfect... I'm not delusional to think they make a exact replica of the bed sheet. Only hope it's good. What choice can you have at this point less you make it.

Best of luck! Lot of times we think perfect is some sort of thing we have to achieve. In reality, it's just a construct. Better is good to. It will get messed up if you drive it and way... Later make it perfect or buy a original ford. Your using aftermarket bolts too soooo...

Leave it better then when you got it.
 
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Tinker said:
Well it's a truck so half the vehicle is the bed. Sorry to hear about the one costumer mac hill beds review... it's on my list. First I heard they are not perfect... I'm not delusional to think they make a exact replica of the bed sheet. Only hope it's good. What choice can you have at this point less you make it.

Best of luck! Lot of times we think perfect is some sort of thing we have to achieve. In reality, it's just a construct. Better is good to. It will get messed up if you drive it and way... Later make it perfect or buy a original ford. Your using aftermarket bolts too soooo...

Leave it better then when you got it.
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I know I am not the only Mack Hils customer that has had problems, and I have spoken to a couple guys that had similar issues with the hole locations. I am not looking for perfect, but I am looking for it to be at least as good as it was from Ford. I don't need "perfect", but I'd be remiss if I didn't do things as good as I could. Why should one settle or try to convince oneself that the idea of making it "perfect" is just a construct? In my experience, driving these old restored vehicles only gets messed up when you don't take the time to do things correctly. Sure, you get rock chips and things will get dirty, but things wont fall apart as they would if you skimp on things because you've convinced yourself that it's ok to settle for mediocre. Everyone has different expectations and skill levels when it comes to restorations, but I firmly believe that we should all take pride in our work and I hope to portray that in everything I do.

I have an enormous amount of experience working with aftermarket panels for vintage vehicles and I also make panels for them as well. I understand that new panels almost always require some tweaking here and there to make them fit properly. Some people are fine with slotting holes to make things fit. I have done this, within reason, but the amount these holes were off was unacceptable to me. I am restoring this pickup and I want it to be nice. I certainly don't want to hog out holes just to make the bolts fall through the holes. I would never modify an original part to make an aftermarket part fit, certainly not on a restoration. I would rather do it the right way since I am capable. Yes, I am using aftermarket bolts, but they are correct replicas from Roy and would not affect the alignment of the holes regardless. My post was not intended to be a bash on Mack Hils but I wanted to share an honest review and the process that I went through to make their bed panel fit. Full disclosure, I only expected a better product because they told me that it was an exact replica of the original bed floor, which it is not. It's close, but you can see in this thread what the differences are. I understand that Mack Hils fills a need in this industry, but you just cannot compare their products to original Ford beds. My conclusion... Repair not Replace!
 
I purchased a 1936 pickup bed from Mack Hils and yes it needed work. My bodyman and I made corrections, and since we didnt have metal working tools, we made it work. Since I had an original bed in which the bodyman looked at and made an estimate for labor involved to make it resemble what it should be--- I saved about $3000 by purchasing a reproduction bed and relocating the 2nd and 3rd body mounts and cutting the carriage bolts holes.
Money well saved and I and the bodyman are quite happy with the results.

If you can do the repair -- go for it. If you want it done quicker, purchase reproduction and make the necessary repairs. Please note: I did send documented pictures and measurements to Mack Hils and they have made changes in their production.
 
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