Hello, steemies!
At the end of my last post about the pickup truck, I talked about how I had to stop working on the flat bed project because of winter. I also mentioned that I started working on it again in late spring of this year.
I pretty much had to start over on the project because two of the three 4X4 cross-members warped over the course of the winter. It would have been impossible to make the flat bed level with the warped 4X4s, so I decided to replace them. I also needed to put a fourth 4X4 on the frame to finish the main supports for the bed.
In this picture, you can see how the 4X4 next to the cab is warped downward at the ends, and the one in the middle is warped upward on the ends.
I had already bought the fourth 4X4 and cut it to length. The warped 4X4s became more obvious when I sat the fourth one on the frame to test fit it.
Here's a better look at the warp on the 4X4 next to the cab. I pulled it off the frame to get a better look at it.
I bought new 4X4s to replace the warped ones, being more careful about my selection this time. After cutting them to length, I drilled the bolt holes using the drill press once again, and finishing the holes with the hand drill. This time, I had the drill press in the shed instead of outside.
I mounted the replacement 4X4 behind the cab with it's spacers.
After that, I drilled and mounted the other two 4X4s on the frame, and checked them to see if they lined all up on the top. They were all close enough to even to make the bed flat.
Once all four of the 4X4s were bolted in place, I screwed the 2X4 endcaps onto the ends of the 4X4s. I left them full length so that I could mark them and cut them off at the right place.
In my next post about the flatbed, I'll talk about putting the deck onto the 4X4s.
That's all I have for this post, I hope you found it interesting!
