I haven't had the drop in out in many years, but the rear gussets and bracing are all visable.

The rust you see is .... "surface" rust. There's really some steel underneath ... ... really!
If I get to "face lift" or "refurbish" her, plan was to wire brush the plate and spray in a liner on top this time .... but then that drop in has been tough.

Here's the front piece. Normally the liner had a lip at front that went over top the front wall, but I trimmed it and sandwiched the liner between the 1-1/2" angle and the truck bed front. You can see a row of bolts below it, they are through the front wall I made to add inside the bed.



Perhaps this helps?



Under the bed liner, first tiome I've looked under here in 20 years? Not as bad as I thought!



Detail of rear corner brace, it's 1-3/4" X 3/16" thick angle, used 3/8" carriage bolts as you see. At bottom it's gusseted and braced to the long piece that is 4" wide 1/4" thick that resides behind the tailgate hinge area from side to side.



The gussets are welded to the angle, they bolt to the truck bed corner pockets behind the tail lights and to that long piecve that goes from side to side. The gussets are of 1/8" material and have a 45 degree angle and I fabed tabs to bot. Imagine about 4" X 4" on the two short sides and a bit over 5.6" on the long 45 degree side. They are solid.





Maybe soon I'll pull the bar off the front, paint it, pull the liner, de-rust the bed, hurculiner it, and the rear? I'm supposed to be selling this truck though, and all the sheet metal and new trim and new panels and that 400 that I've collected over 20+ years.

We'll see?

 

Awesome! Danke!