VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 1953 3600 Bed Crossmember placement

I am restoring for a friend a 1953 Chevrolet 3600 with the original 87 (approx) bed length. It was totally disassembled by someone else, frame and bed crossmembers powder coated. I cannot find any diagrams telling me where the various cross members are placed. I am told by the son of the man who tore it down, then died, that they are all the original members. Can anyone tell me which member goes where?

This is probably little help because it doesn't show all of the individual cross members but it does have dimensions if that helps.

https://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyresto/53126.htm

https://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyresto/53068.htm

You should consider buying the 1947 -54 Chevy Truck Factory Assembly Manual. About $35 on Amazon with Prime delivery.

The major limitation is that while the title is 1947-1954 most of the information is for the 1954 model. There were lots of changes over the years the Advanced Design trucks were built. Because your truck is 1953 there should be a lot of useful information.

We used this manual while rebuilding a 1949 3100. There were numerous instances when it was obvious that the information was not applicable to that truck. It was still a valuable resource in our work.

Mar-K has a "bed building manual". What are the differences between the cross sills? I think on my 54 they were all the same with the exception of the very back one. There may have been two that had "sliders" where the bed mounting bolts passed through.

Thanks for the information Tiny, Rusty and Greg. I started putting things together and it soon became obvious where everything went. Also found a web-site that gives wood dimensions so I am all set (I think) Thanks again guys,

Ron

Hi Ron,

We used the dimensions from Stovebolt to make the bed wood for the ‘49. We bought clear pine from Menard’s. A friend set a dado blade on his table saw to make the profile after he ripped the boards to width. He left the boards at the full 8’ length. Then we cut them to length as we confirmed measurements on the bed when we installed them.

One trick we used was the “chamfer” the bottoms of the ends of the boards so we could set them a little closer to the vertical part of the front and rear cross members.

We stained the boards a light gray. We stained the cut end just before we installed each board. The truck is black and the metal floor strips are also black.

It looks great!