Bed removal ??? Door Alignment???

[Dfnsmn34]

Hey Swepty owners got a ??? about bed removal/adjustment. If its been covered I didn't see it...but,a again that doesn't mean it wasn't covered...anyway the ??

Dad's 67 has overload springs and coil shocks on it. We want to remove the overloads. Why? Well the bed is off to one side about an inch? and Up about an inch. Now if we removes the overloads ( I think you just lift the rear end, put jack stands on the axles and you should be able to wrench them off/remove....right?) Do I need to remove the wooded blocks or re-shim them (between the bed and the frame. Or do they stay and we just loosen up the bed bolts and push and shove the bed around until it sits right?

Never done it before...but let me know if I am way off, or on the right track!

I've got a door adjustment alignment too??? I saw the threads on that, they answer a lot of questions..but.

Should I align the door with Weatherstrip or without? Reason is Dad ordered some new door weatherstrip and I was wondering if I should do the door alignments BEFORE (with old weatherstrip), AFTER we remove the old, OR WIth NEW weatherstrip? Common sense told me "wait till the strip comes in, remove the old, make door adjustments and install new weather strip?"

Watch ya think?


Mahalo Mopar brothers!

[motomatt383]

on the door alignment topic. i put new weatherstrips on my truck. i don't think you can put the weatherstrips on without removing the doors. with that being said, yes you probably can. but you wouldn't be able to clean the surfaces very well or get them glued in place without them fighting you every step of the way. off the truck, lay them on there back(carefully) and do all your work at a comfortable level & then reinstall on to the truck.


just my thoughts

matt

[Jims68]

Wait till the rubber has been installed. THEN adjust the door. Plus, you can install the door weather strip even with the doors installed however, it does make it a bit more difficult. The W/S is in a length, not a piece that is fit to the door. (know what I mean?) So, make sure you have the strip placed on the door the correct way. Then, what I did was only glue on about 2 feet at a time. This will save you a BIG mess. Also, I put the seam on the bottom of the door. and also glued the two ends together. USE BLACK weatherstirp cement. It also comes in a UGLY YELLOW color. So, make sure you get the BLACK which matches the W/S if it seeps out a little bit and is less noticeable. FOLLOW mfg. instructions for using the CEMENT. After the door has the strip on, the door may fit a little tight, that is OK. probably in a day or so, it will close easier, and you 'may' need to adjust the striker in a bit more after the W/S has 'seated' itself.

Jim

[Russ]

There was one place where the ws was joined at an angle on the ones I got from Restoration Speciaties. The is joint goes at the top front of the door where it makes the only sharpe curve. I put mine on with the doors installed but unfortunately I put it on wrong so I am going to remove it and replace it again. I think I'm going to remove the doors this time as getting to the front area behind the hinges is difficult. Notice which way it goes. The narrow side goes to the door.
Is your truck a wide bed or Utiline? If it's wide I don't know how it could be an inch off sideways.

[Jims68]

Good Catch Russ! I forgot that there was a "corner" for that area near the vent window. But, hopefully, he would see that when he was about to install it. Good point on making sure he doesn't put it on "backwards" too... (you really didn't have to admit you did that ) Been a couple years now from when I installed mine... Yes, it would do a "cleaner" job with the doors removed, but what I meant was... it is possible if you take your time and do a little bit at a time. I also just put the WS on my 56 DeSoto WITH the doors installed! and I did it like I said. A couple feet at a time and patience! I managed to keep the glue off the door where it didn't belong too.

Jim

[Dfnsmn34]

Thanks guys. Yeah the weather strip is one long piece. Good recommendation on doing it a couple of feet at a time. Yeah I've seen that yellow crap. Scrapped it of my Dusters trunk. YUCK!

The bed is wide. Found three bed bolts....really loose. tighten those down. Bed is still shifted though...Got to figure that out...

One side was done by the PO. (weather strip) and its the same as the new WS so well use that as a guide. the other side (driver) has really thick WS. puffy too. It would be great to find stuff like that ... its about 2 inches thick/wide in some areas. but its painted over and torn in several places.

Any ideas on the bed?
Quote:
"Dad's 67 has overload springs and coil shocks on it. We want to remove the overloads. Why? Well the bed is off to one side about an inch? and Up about an inch. Now if we removes the overloads ( I think you just lift the rear end, put jack stands on the axles and you should be able to wrench them off/remove....right?) Do I need to remove the wooded blocks or re-shim them (between the bed and the frame. Or do they stay and we just loosen up the bed bolts and push and shove the bed around until it sits right?"

Mahalo !

[nfury8]

I have installed the weatherstrip on one of the rear doors on my crew and then
decided to wait till the cab was secured back down on good mounts to continue.
I was having a lot of trouble getting the doors to line up well. I didn't have much
trouble installing the new stuff with the door on though. But the doors are all
freshly painted and I went a foot at a time with the yellow stuff. That stuff STICKS!!
I thought we had a thread a while back that had a consensus that the black wasn't
as strong? Any way, a foot at a time has allowed me to keep it pretty clean.

As for the bed- I don't remember seeing any shims on the blocks when I pulled
my beds off.

[Jims68]

To align the bed, just loosen the bed bolts and move it around till you get it sitting on the frame the way you like it. As for "why" it is sitting up an inch, not sure why it would be like that. Look at the blocks and make sure someone didn't make a new block and made it bigger than it should be. IN other words, make sure they look the same from side to side. I can't recall, but I 'think' that the blocks are different sizes. I had one of my blocks rotted away, and this made the bed sit lower on one side. You may need to make a new block to fix your height adjustment. Is there anyway of knowing if the frame has had some damage causing the bed difference?

As for black vs yellow... I never had any problem using the black and it has always 'held' perfectly when using the Manufacturers instructions.. The YELLOW is called "SUPER" weatherstrip adhesive from 3M. Although, when I put the WS on my 56 DeSoto, I used BLACK PERMATEX WS adhesive which I got at Auto Zone or something like that; however, NAPA also sold the Permatex available in black or yellow.

Jim

[Russ]

Jim, is there any advantage to using the Permatex adhesive over the 3M? Is it less stringy? The 3M stuff always seems to string out and get all over everything. It would be nice to find something a little more user friendly.
I did install my ws on to my doors with them installed on the truck but it looks like it would be so much easier if they were laying flat, so that is what I want to do next time. I also have to clean off the old adhesive and having them off should make that a little more convenient also.
Also, regarding bed alignment, I was looking through the pictures that I made along the way and found this one. This shows how far off the bed was originally. The pinstrips are original on Adventurers and never had been replaced when I made this pic. They matched perfectly before I aligned the accent line. This was before the truck got it's first re-paint. All Sweptlines might not be this bad but this is why I suggest aligning the bed and then making the wooden blocks accordingly. Also when aligning the bed look at the truck from the rear. The top of the bed should be almost exactly even with the flat surface on the rear of the cab.

[Dfnsmn34]

Yea that yellow crap is stringy! Does hold well though.

Don't know if the frame has ever had damage. I'll do what you guys said and shift it around. The blocks look original... can't really tell if its been changed.

Mahalo for your help.

Here is a picture to show you what it looks like...

regards, Mike

[Hobcobble]

Have you looked at your rear cab mounts?
John

[Dfnsmn34]

Well...I thought I had...but I will double check..they kind of look like two hockey pucks , but bulging right?

[Jims68]

Have you looked at your rear cab mounts?
John

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the picture! First, park the truck somewhere level. Then, put a 4 foot level across the rear bumper and take a look at the bubble, and again on the lip (where it is about 2" wide and flat) of the front of the bed near your glass. Should be about the same. Then, check the level across the roof to see what it says. And while your at it, check it across your front bumper. Front and rear bumpers "should' be about the same. With that much difference in the bed, you should see a difference in the level too.

Well...I thought I had...but I will double check..they kind of look like two hockey pucks , but bulging right?

Yes, those ROUND ones are the ones at the REAR of the cab. FLAT pieces of rubber sort of like small squares of "Truck mud flaps" are used on the front mounts.

Jim, is there any advantage to using the Permatex adhesive over the 3M? Is it less stringy? The 3M stuff always seems to string out and get all over everything. It would be nice to find something a little more user friendly.

As for the glue being stringy, yeah, I have noticed that too. However, I don't think it is a 3M problem, OR because it is yellow, or anything like that, I "believe" that starts to happen after you have used it for a few minutes, and the glue around the tube nozzle tip starts to dry (let's face it, you never clean it after use ) and then it sticks to the 'new' stuff being squeezed out. SO, in order to avoid that, clean off the tip of the tube with a paper towel to minimize that from happening.

Jim

[Dfnsmn34]

All righty...I climbed underneath and the mounts look really good. Metal spacers look solid. floor board looks solid. I can take some picture of the mounts, if you guys like. The wooden blocks on the bed look solid too. I haven't done the "level" test yet but I can tell ya the passenger side of the bed is at least a 1/2 higher, if you line that up with the flat cab portion (under rear window). Then it goes to the proper height on the drivers side (the bed that is). The bed on the drives side is about a half inch off on the side. So if you look at the door area you see a gap, between the cab and bed. This gap sticks out a half inch. If you ran your hand on the cab/door toward the back. Your fingers could/would get stopped and stuck at the bed! Ouch.

If the cab is off. it really hard to tell.

Dad seems to think if we remove the overload springs the bed will settle. But I don't see how the overloads would make a difference. He afraid to remove them. He doesn't believe me that if we, jack up the rear end, put jack stand under the axle, removing all the weight on the springs. That we can wrench the overloads right off. SInce the weight of the vehicle is now off the tires. the weight of the truck on the springs is gone.

I think the best route right now is, remove the overloads, loosen the bed bolts and push shove the bed into submission.

WHATCHA GUYS THINK? Sound like a plan?

Corrections or critics are wanted!!!

[Jims68]

That is what I would do. Loosen the bolts and move the bed around... and your right about with the truck up in the air, and the rear hanging on the springs without a jack or stands under the rear, there is no weight on them. Also, (your probably already aware) just make sure you have stands under the frame while working on it. That may be the problem too. I DO know that if you jack up a car on a corner, it can throw off alignments of doors, fenders and such, so it 'may' be the overload springs.

Jim

[Dfnsmn34]

Thanks Jim. This weekend I will talk to dad and see if we can remove the overloads. It's been bothering Dad to do it. He (like the rest of us is worried about the unknown) so I just have to put his mind at ease.

One more question...you mentioned that I should put jack stands on the frame. Cant I just leave the floor jack on the pumpkin. (Safety reasons) Put a jack stand on each axles? This would hold the weight of the vehicle? Or did I read that wrong?

Or you would put the jack stands on the frame to remove the weight of the truck from the axles?

Again Swepty members thanks.

I'm not sure If we will get to this, this weekend...the in-laws are coming in today...Wifey would get mad if I said...hi! and bye..to work on the truck....

Plus...I'm trying to help dad...but I forget its his truck and then I just start wrenching...He's thinking do this...I'm thinking do that...next thing ya know...FINE YOU DO IT! NO! YOU STARTED IT NOW FINISH IT! THATS IT...I"M NEVER HELPING YOU AGAIN! Ten minutes later...Hey what if we did this...sounds good lets try...half hour later....WELL ITS NOT MY DAMN TRUCK!!! DO IT THIS WAY!!!

so this goes..back and forth... HA!

Its all good though....funny stuff. Its not like that choppers show...much less swearing...but close.

[Jims68]

IF you leave the jack under the pumpkin, it would be like the truck is still on the ground. There still is weight on the springs. So, you need to jack up truck, then place a stand UNDER THE FRAME near the rear bumper brackets, THEN let the jack down allowing the truck to sit on the stands, and thus allowing the rear and springs to have no weight on it. (maybe I didn't word that right in my last post. Sorry 'bout that)

Yeah, better hang with the inlaws.... also, get 2nd opinion from Dad too.

Jim

[Russ]

I'd take a look at the right rear cab mount. It might have deteriorated, or worst case, pushed up into the floor due to floor rust. I have fairly new cab mounts and my cab floor sits about 1 1/2 inches above the frame bracket that holds the rear mounts. If the cab mounts are good then I would suspect that someone has replaced the wood bed mounting block with a thicker block. I have about 5/8 inch clearance between the top of my frame and the bottom lip of the bed crossmember at my front block. I would check these measurements with the truck sitting on level ground before removing springs, unless there is an obvious problem with the springs.

[Dfnsmn34]

Hey Russ! Thanks for the input.

Here are pictures off the mounts and cab/bed alignment. Dad is working on the weatherstripping first...then we will get to the alignment.
Drivers side

[Dfnsmn34]

Here is the passenger side alignment.