nah man this truck is like brand new,there not even rusted underneath yet, im sure with some heat of a torch and a good torx wrench theyll pop off, i can always ask my neighbor too since he has a garage full of lifts, tools and other goodies. im going to purchase a torx wrench and see what happens. when i poped that liner off the underbed was completely clean, mines mounds of pine needles ;/ other than that 0 rust and the paint was really clean as well.

how much do you guys think a torx wrench would go for? i need to wait till i get more money though :(

 

Don't say that every truck is different. Stuff like this turns people off of doing mods. His could come out like butter. A socket wrench would be the first place to start if that doesn't work get like a 18" breaker bar and that should take them out.

 

You don't even need to heat it, Ford doesn't put Loctite on the bed bolts.

 

oh they don't? :-D schweet ill pick up a torx wrench or a breaker bar and go from there.. but wouldnt heat make them come out easier? even if theres no loctite?

 

Just go get a whole set of torx bits from that go up to size 60 and fit on a 3/8 ratchet, a good set will already have the bits pressed into a socket.

If you work on your truck alot, you will need them, the ranger is infested with these. I think the biggest in a ranger is a t-60, and that is the seat belts.

I got a set and paid $9 and keep it in my truck all the time, comes in a handy little case.

 

See I really don't know, on my core support bolts I heated the crap out of one and got it out but the other side I got out with the same amount of force and no heat. If you cant get them out without it you can always give it a try. Spray some PB blaster on it the night before though.

 

ok well use my method as a last resort then.. my truck was really rusted so that is why i whent that route..

any why would cutting the bolts turn people away from moding? lol who said life was easy it takes what it takes to get the job done, granted its kinda half assed but like i said i had no other option..

 

Cutting bolts and turning a wrench is 2 different levels of work lol. I know if I had read that I had to grind off the head of a bolt when I first started modding I probably wouldn't have done whatever it was.

 

i guess thats what seperates the men from the boys hahaha im just messin

 

hey if your going to do a spray on liner do not again DO NOT use rhino. They do not sand the bed so it WILL peel. The best company to use is called ultimate liners. If your anywhere near New Mexico I strongly Recomend SMITHS ULTIMATE LINERS. My bro owns it and they take the time each truck deserves. laters

 

haha.
Every lie starts from a bit of truth.

 

shhhh i was trying to be nice :) haha

 

 

Okay, I'm a little confused. Wouldn't heating the bolts cause the opposite effect? The heat would expand the metal. So the OD of the bolt would get bigger and the ID of the hole would get smaller. Hence making them even tighter. Please explain.

 

heating the bolt will soften the metal, it acts like a lubricant when you heat it up. i dont know the physics behind it but it works..

 

heating the metal will make it "softer", which will make it easier for the bolt to come out..

 

Actually the heating is the melt the locktite that Ford uses on the bolts. The bed normally doesn't have any on it but sometimes Ford does weird things. Just get a good breaker bar you won't have to worry about heating them.

 

yes it will melt the loc tight but it dose soften the metal.. i have done it with bolts that dont have loc tight on them, heat will actualy "liquify" metal making it lubricated. to put it in prespective if you run a motor pull all the oil out of it and keep it running at a high rpm the heat will actualy "lubricate" the cylinder walls, as soon as the motor cools down it locks up.. same concept..

same thing if you have a cross threaded bolt, if you heat it up you can actualy recreate the threads to where it is crossed and the bolt will come out but 9 times out of 10 the bolt snaps, unless your tapping it..

 

Ah I see where your coming from now, I guess I miss understood you the first time. I heated the crap out of my core support bolts and that didnt do anything for them lol. Time to bring out the grinder!

 

yeah i need to pick up a breaker bar when i get some more cash so i can fix my bed. in the meantime i guess its fine, but looks stupid if your actually looking at that part of the bed and notice things like that like i do.. hahah i think i have ocd on vehicles :-(

 

I actually did do a BL on 1 ranger that had BLUE loc-tite already on the bolts. Weird.

But even on rusted crap mud trucks...never had a problem with bed bolts. Now cab bolts...different story...they are a PITA. Lots of HEAT.

Get yourself a good breaker...or even use a 1/2" socket with a cheater pipe...and go to town. Go slow. It should come right out, they are about the same torque as wheel lugs (100ft#), so don't be surprised if your putting your weight into it.

 

yeah i used a huge alen wrench and tried it befor, i threw all my strength and weight into that thing and still nothing. i need a breaker bar asap.

 

I got my 18 3/4" 1/2 drive breaker bar from Harbor Freight for 7 bucks 2 weeks ago. I get most of my tools from them now, can't beat the prices.

 

The main reason I asked for an explaination about the heat is because I have another problem. The ball mount for my trailer hitch is stuck in the hitch. Would heating it have the same effect and it should be easy to pull out? I was using the logic that if I heat it, the ball mount will expand and the ID of the hitch will contract, hence making it tighter. If I were able to put extreme cold to it, it would have the opposite effect and should come right out. For what it's worth, the hitch is a standard steel hitch, but the ball mount it stainless.

 

For my bed bolts I had to really jerk on em with a breaker bar, It took me a long time but I finally got em out and now they come out easy. My truck has a lot of rust so I can't see you having "that" much trouble with it