Got up today with plans to bolt up the bed and start fabricating mounts for the fenders, but it didn't go down exactly that way lol.
First up decided to install the bushings and bolts on the front and rear pivot mounts. Started with some metal shims to lift/align the holes to install the bushings. The fit is very tight and the alignment has to be right on the money to get the bushings installed.
One of the bushings. There is a bushing on each side of the pivot mount.
Bushing Installed.
When we removed the RW1 box we had to cut the rear bolt in half to remove it from the mount, it was installed from the rear and was trapped by the rear frame/hitch mount. Rather than remove a LOT of bolts to get it clear we just cut the bolt. Luckily the local bolt supply shop had a metric replacement in stock.
Rear bolt installed.
After messing with the shims to level the rear mount I got smart and brought out the Porta-Power.....Sooooo much easier. Here the front mount is pinned. Enter the next problem.
So the troop bed I picked up is off a U1350L and it came without the middle mounting brackets. I received the mounting brackets a few months later and bolted them up to the bed. Now with the bed mounted and the front and rear pivot points pinned the center mounts were about 3/4" to high and wouldn't seat all the way down. At first I thought I had the wrong center mounts, then I went out and looked at the mounts on the RW1 box. The center mounts on the RW1 box are about 3/4" lower than the front and rear pivot mounts, the mounts on the troop bed are all close to even.....Hmmmm.
That leaves us with a couple options, either extend the center mounts (lots of work) or lower the front and rear pivot mounts until the center mounts rest fully down. A quick search on google showed that the brace that bridges the frame where the pivot attaches is different on the troop bed than mine. The RW1 box is made by Wackenhut and it looks like they supplied the front and rear braces as well, which turns out to be at a different height than the Mercedes unit.
Here's a shot of the front brace, the tab on the end of the brace that mates with the frame is off centered by a 1/2". We flipped the braces over and pinned the bed in again which lowered the bed some, better but still to high on the center mounts.
Time to modify the two braces to match the stock troop bed height. We will remove the tabs and relocate them so the center mounts sit fully seated.
In the vise and ready to remove the mounting tabs.
Porta-Band made quick work of removing the tabs
Shimmed the tabs to the required height and tacked them in place.
Required difference between the stock and modified mounts.
At this point the tabs are just tacked in place, we installed both braces in the truck and verified the correct fit on the center mounts then removed them again to fully welded them up. Fit is right on the money, center mounts seat nicely now. We also loosened all the bolts slightly on the center mounts so we can square everything up.
With the fit verified it's time to weld the tabs in place. My father getting ready to perform his magic!
And the tabs securely back in place. Will paint the braces then get them installed and hopefully move on to mounting the fenders and taillights soon
Hodakaguy