1986 K10 Bed removal

[Shamrock Motors]

Hello All,

I am having a lot of difficulty removing the carriage bolts that hold the bed onto my 1986 K10 Pickup. If I get them to turn a bit as soon as the square part of the bolt is higher than the square hole in the bed the bolt spins freely. The bolt is hard to get at to cut underneath because of where it is in the frame. Also some bolts are too near the gas tank.

Any thoughts on how to do this ?

 

[marks86]

1. grind the heads off

2. drill the heads off

 

[chengny]

If the holes in the bed floor (that prevent the bolts from turning) are still nice clean squares - you are lucky and should try to keep them that way.

If you are intent upon saving the OEM bolts, try this:

First thing is to soak the living hell out of the bolts/nuts with penetrating oil. Spray them with liberal amounts of PBlaster. Keep soaking them for a week or so. Also, use a wire brush to remove as much rust and scale on the exposed bolt threads as you can.

When you feel that they have been soaking long enough, have an assistant get into the bed and tell him to stand on the bolt heads as you attempt to back the nuts off.

If you are not trying to save the OEM fasteners, the easiest way to free the bed is to grind the nuts off.

Using a 3 1/2" angle grinder, make a slice in the nuts - not quite parallel to the bolt, but at a bit of an angle. When you have cut the nut all the way through (down into the bolt), get a long cold chisel and a small sledge hammer. Place the point of the chisel into the cut in the nut and strike it with the sledge hammer.

After a few blows, the nut will spread open and fall away.

 

[Shamrock Motors]

Thanks for all the advice. I dont want to grind the heads because the bed is pretty pristine. On 6 of the 8 i was able to get 3 -4 thread turns before the square part of the carriage bolt came out of its square hole. This allowed me enough room to put a cut off tool between the nut and bottom of the bed and for the most part cut off the bolt.
Now for the last two which are in a cross member on the bottom of the bed. There is a place to put an extension, an access hole, which allow you to get a socket on the nut but again...wont turn. Have to try a longer breaker bar.

 

[gs82]

mine were pretty rusted on so i just welded nuts to the top of the carriage bolt heads and it worked perfect. just a couple strong tacks on each one and they all came pretty easy.

 

[doeskin]

I just went through this with 85 Chevy truck , I had to use the torch to heat a few of them cherry red and they spun right off , I just sprayed water over the gas tank when I was heating those bolts .

 

[MannyDantyla]

If the holes in the bed floor (that prevent the bolts from turning) are still nice clean squares - you are lucky and should try to keep them that way.

If you are intent upon saving the OEM bolts, try this:

First thing is to soak the living hell out of the bolts/nuts with penetrating oil. Spray them with liberal amounts of PBlaster. Keep soaking them for a week or so. Also, use a wire brush to remove as much rust and scale on the exposed bolt threads as you can.

When you feel that they have been soaking long enough, have an assistant get into the bed and tell him to stand on the bolt heads as you attempt to back the nuts off.

If you are not trying to save the OEM fasteners, the easiest way to free the bed is to grind the nuts off.

Using a 3 1/2" angle grinder, make a slice in the nuts - not quite parallel to the bolt, but at a bit of an angle. When you have cut the nut all the way through (down into the bolt), get a long cold chisel and a small sledge hammer. Place the point of the chisel into the cut in the nut and strike it with the sledge hammer.

After a few blows, the nut will spread open and fall away.

Good advice for getting any big rusty nuts and bolts off. Thanks, this should help me

 

[LFR]

I just melted those pissin things with oxy acytlene when I had my k10 that was an 86 .

 

[MadOgre]

If you are not trying to save the OEM fasteners, the easiest way to free the bed is to grind the nuts off.

This is absolutely key!

There is absolutely no sense in trying to grind the head of the carriage bolt off. Because. The square shank of the carriage bolt will not fit through the round hole on the bottom of the bed channel.

LOL I tried to grind the heads off when I was 18 years old and that was easily the biggest waste of time I have ever experienced in life LOL

 

[good times]

I just had to pull the box off my 85. On the ones that spun i just used a pair of vice grips on the shank of the bolt. One of them i had to put 2 pairs onto but it held enough to get the nuts off.