# 2001 f350 Flatbed Plow Truck BUILD *Many Pics*



## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

So let me know what you think. Took 2 months and I didn't show everything that had to be done just the cool ****. The truck has 50,xxx 5.4L that I pretty much scored i got it for so cheap. Only rot was bed and doors and drivers rocker panel. Sounds like a lot but for what was solid it was worth fixing/welding. The frame and motor are very clean. Went threw every aspect of pickup so it runs sound…manifolds to brakes to frame, shocks, plugs, shifter, airbags, hitch,water lines, exhaust, custom bed custom steps just about everything was fixed. Heres a bunch of pics hope you guys like , My dad and I plow in the winter and this is 1 of 2 f350s we own aside from the toyota and tractor.

Scored a used Downeaster 3 yd and put $1000 in that so she's pretty damn new too. Okay thanks for viewing here you go….

Bought an 8ft Western outta the junkyard and added springs and minute mount ears

HERES THE BUILD:

When we got it




bed off


Scaled


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Added cab lights from junkyard 


wheeled the frame undercoated with brush and painted wheels


welded doors/ patches/bondo not to proud lol


another ugly patch


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

bondo


corner sanded 


rustoleum


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

exhaust and frame




Airbags and frame 


Tabs for bolting bed


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Spacer added 






more ribs


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Dad helping out framed out


Tackin her up 


Welding


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

rounding some corners


headache rack


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Thinking of design, going to use the diamond plate for headboard 






Done.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Handles, plate, middle beam


Diamond plate gusset


lights


comin along


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

So i screwed up didn't account for filler neck so came up with this…


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Some Paint



Tractor implement


Fabbing up bumper



step bumper


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Finished bumper


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Oak


Bolt this before i forget lol hopefully she fills fast.


Building as i go , going to notch wood for hooks to be welded solid


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

anchors for sander


drilling sucks


protected will have a milk crate in the back also..


getting there


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

a lot of damn paint


dried


mudflaps


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Housings for some lights


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

SD foglights for the rear


100 bucks underneath and frame 


This is somewhat of a budget build if you cannot tell.. heres a plow from the yard, 1/8th inch above the moldboard and some edges I had to fit to plow


more springs


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Paint


If you can't tell i added 6 inches to this plow.


bros dog on the bed


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

digger pipe i made for vacall


ANYWAYS sry heres what the truck looks like now with side steps all lettered and with plow and sander.

steps




2 yd with 1 yd added. Downeaster brand new 10.5hp out of the box. I am going to load her up but yes i know theres some weight there.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Red trucks look good with silver i was surprised


SOOOO pretty much if i took a picture of the truck right now it would look a little better seeing its inspected registered and all wired up but i didn't think i had to share that. The truck does have LED's all around with clearance lights cd player strobes in the rear and led reverse. For the budget i had i know shell make me my money back and the motor runs so damn strong i don't have to worry. Thanks for viewing and if you wanna leave comments go ahead. Ill probably throw a pic up tomorrow of it in the yard.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

this is my first post with pictures so i could only figure out how to do it this way


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## dodgegmc1213 (Aug 21, 2011)

That truck is sweet good luck with it!


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## TCLandscaping (Jan 27, 2012)

Holy ****! What a transformation. Looks super clean and very professional. Best of luck. Wish I had half of that talent.


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## Jguck25 (Oct 30, 2009)

Truck looks awesome! Be careful with 3 yards of sand, the sander, and a steel flatbed on it.. 

Would you be interested in making an identical flatbed but for a shortbed? I really like it and I need one. Nice welds too


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## peeklandscaping (Jul 26, 2013)

sweet work. I'm impressed. What sort of a hole did that burn in your wallet?


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## WIPensFan (Jan 31, 2009)

Great job. That was a lot of work. I'm curious, did the previous owner just leave the original box filled with salt?? Never seen a bed that bad.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

WIPensFan;1864511 said:


> Great job. That was a lot of work. I'm curious, did the previous owner just leave the original box filled with salt?? Never seen a bed that bad.


 it was sitting at a town garage in Millville mass full of water sand and asphalt luckily it didn't hurt the frame its pitted but it's solid


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

peeklandscaping;1864504 said:


> sweet work. I'm impressed. What sort of a hole did that burn in your wallet?


Well let's just say the whole truck I'm in it almost 5000.


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## snowish10 (Oct 29, 2010)

She looks dangggg good!!!! Great work, Id make a couple holes in the bondo in the doors to lets the water drain out tho.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Jguck25;1864490 said:


> Truck looks awesome! Be careful with 3 yards of sand, the sander, and a steel flatbed on it..
> 
> Would you be interested in making an identical flatbed but for a shortbed? I really like it and I need one. Nice welds too


Thank you very much and yes I enjoy fabbing but if I had the extra time I would. Sorry this was built doin half days and when money came in you know. I couldn't price the time that's into it.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

TCLandscaping;1864481 said:


> Holy ****! What a transformation. Looks super clean and very professional. Best of luck. Wish I had half of that talent.


Thank you it took confidence for me to attack something like this. i wanted it to perform well and in this case carrying the weight was my concern.... but I just went for it, and if you go for it little by little youll be surprised the progress you can make with yourself


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## TJS (Oct 22, 2003)

I commend your build. Not knocking anything you did. Trust me I know first hand the effort and money it takes to build a bed. I have built three beds already. 2 for Chevies (one wood floor), and 1 for my F250 Superduty (all three dump), see link in signature. You will find out sooner or later that wood moves no matter how tight you make the gaps. It also wants to buckle no matter what water proofing you put on it or how many fasteners you have. Plus when drilling holes in the cross members this promotes future corrosion especially with the liquid chemicals used today. You also were so close to making it dump. All you needed was a dump kit and adapt it to your bed. I will never have a non dumping truck.. I use it all the time.

Again not knocking you at all, however with the hot rolled steel (c-channel and such) you need to clean it and sand the mill scale to clean bright metal (CBM) before welding. MIGing will definitely weld through the mill scale on the metal but your welds will be cleaner and not including the mill scale which is actually slag. 

As far as total weight is concerned my F250 superduty netted out to about 825Lbs more however that is including my dump, kit (pump motor, cylinder and scissor). So I would guess to say you are netting about 600 Lbs give or take. 
Again, nice job and good luck with it.


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## Banksy (Aug 31, 2005)

That came out sweet! I love regular cab flat beds.


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## DellSteven (Nov 9, 2014)

looks great wish I could fab like that time is the problem keep up the good work tymusictymusic


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

TJS;1864665 said:


> I commend your build. Not knocking anything you did. Trust me I know first hand the effort and money it takes to build a bed. I have built three beds already. 2 for Chevies (one wood floor), and 1 for my F250 Superduty (all three dump), see link in signature. You will find out sooner or later that wood moves no matter how tight you make the gaps. It also wants to buckle no matter what water proofing you put on it or how many fasteners you have. Plus when drilling holes in the cross members this promotes future corrosion especially with the liquid chemicals used today. You also were so close to making it dump. All you needed was a dump kit and adapt it to your bed. I will never have a non dumping truck.. I use it all the time.
> 
> Again not knocking you at all, however with the hot rolled steel (c-channel and such) you need to clean it and sand the mill scale to clean bright metal (CBM) before welding. MIGing will definitely weld through the mill scale on the metal but your welds will be cleaner and not including the mill scale which is actually slag.
> 
> ...


Thank you , and yes I wanted a dump so bad but like I said time came into play didn't realize how much the truck needed aside from the flatbed and plow.beleive me I didn't want todo body work but you could practically see the ground when the door was shut. That's good advice to because I tacked a lot of it without grinding the oil off but I'd say 75% was grinded wether I welded one side and grinder the other . Also I'm thinkin 600 too actually lighter than expected. Thanks again and my next bed probably my white ford after she rots away will dump.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

btw that is a sweet setup you have in your garage between the tig and plasma I'm jealous lol. i checked the flat bed looks awesome man


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## durafish (Sep 6, 2011)

Excellent work. I did a very similar project over the summer. 2000 f350 7.3. Same thing body wise but I put a 2014 bed on and repainted the cab. Not kknocking your body work because I did the same but any rust under the bondo will pop right back. It sucks but for a work truck it's great.


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## durafish (Sep 6, 2011)

Excellent work. I did a very similar project over the summer. 2000 f350 7.3. Same thing body wise but I put a 2014 bed on and repainted the cab. Not knocking your body work because I did the same but any rust under the bondo will pop right back. It sucks but for a work truck it's great. Good luck, should be a great money maker.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

durafish;1864827 said:


> Excellent work. I did a very similar project over the summer. 2000 f350 7.3. Same thing body wise but I put a 2014 bed on and repainted the cab. Not kknocking your body work because I did the same but any rust under the bondo will pop right back. It sucks but for a work truck it's great.


I cut all the rust out and cut sections from the bed rails of the bed and welded them in . They had the same contour of the bottom part of the door and made them much stronger to bondo too. Thanks for the tip dura fish


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## durafish (Sep 6, 2011)

ballandchain91;1864936 said:


> I cut all the rust out and cut sections from the bed rails of the bed and welded them in . They had the same contour of the bottom part of the door and made them much stronger to bondo too. Thanks for the tip dura fish


 Well in that case you should be good for awhile. I welded in some sheet metal in mine and same with my rockers and corners. I sold the truck so I won't see how well it'll hold up.


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

Updated


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## ballandchain91 (Aug 13, 2014)

durafish;1864939 said:


> Well in that case you should be good for awhile. I welded in some sheet metal in mine and same with my rockers and corners. I sold the truck so I won't see how well it'll hold up.


Honestly 2 or 3 years is all I'm expecting but if I'm lucky I'll find some doors in the future and upgrade to a duel wheel for the sanding aspect. just didn't feel like painting the truck over you know. Yeah the part of the bed rail that curves in the inside of the bed I cut out out about 1 1/2 x 2ft and layed in because there was absolutely nothing on the bottom of these doors lol. It's pretty damn strong I think


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## durafish (Sep 6, 2011)

Wow, just realized you have RI plates. Where you from? I'm in Johnston.


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## FordFisherman (Dec 5, 2007)

Solid work truck, nice job man.


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