I'm about to buy some new body panels and am curious Where is the best place to buy body parts I've been looking on bronco graveyard is there steel any good or is it more like lmc truck steel as for bed panels my bed floor is really bad and the skins on both sides need to be replaced to the only place I've seen that sells the whole floor is lmc truck but I'm afraid to pull the trigger with the spotty reviews on there steel I know it be best to find a good oem bed but being that I live in indiana there is almost no chance of that happening.

 

I have some floor pans from Tabco a friend of mine gave me when his father passed. The metal is nice and thick and I think most of what they sell, they make here in the states, except for a few items.

 

Tabco front panel from LMC

Rear panel from RA
I got some panels from LMC and they were TABCO. I also got some from Rock Auto and they didn't have any stamps/markings, but they seemed to be the proper gauge.

LMC was a front bed side panel. Rock Auto were rear bed side panels.

LMC is the only place that I could really find that had the panels for the front bed side.

I am also considering going with the full floor replacement from LMC. If you pull the trigger let us know how it works out.

 

I ordered my aftermarket 8' bed sides from a salvage yard back in the spring. They were CHL brand and surprisingly good quality, $537 for both sides. JEGS also has CHL bedsides, and I ordered cab corners and a lower door skin from LMC that were also CHL and pretty decent.

 

I got all my panels from Tabco and they all fit great. My truck is an 81 F100,you can just make out the cab corners in pictures.


[img]http://cars.grantskingdom.com/var/resizes/1980-Ford-F100/20160422_162148.jpg]/img]

inner & outer left door



Now on the bed floor if LMC is the only place to have it then you don't have much of a choice or do you?
May want to do a little measuring on the new trucks for bed mounting. If they work out right you could buy a take off, cut the sides off at the spot welds and hang the right bed sides on it as I heard someone did that.
It all depends on how much work you want to do but if doing floor & sides then a take off bed and just doing sides I think is less work.
Dave ----

 

The bed floor is the same thru 96 trucks. So you can search some junkyards for the floor. Or see if other supplies sell the bed floors for a newer ford and buy that.

 

Yes, Tabco is the best I've found. Be aware however that if you order from LMC or any other common aftermarket supplier, you may get Tabco, or you may get horrible thin import garbage. It's a crap-shoot, and seems entirely dependent on what they have in stock at the time. I would recommend always ordering directly from Tabco at tabcoparts.com.

 

 

 

I put Taiwan-made cab corners, wheel arches, and bed quarters on my 86. Not the thickest steel but no complaints.

 

 

Seems like tabco is the way to go I'll buy as many parts from them as I can and I think I'm going to try and find a newer bed and reskin it probly be about the same price in the end and I'll have a stronger bed floor I would not worry as much about the steel thickness if I did not intend on ever putting stuff back there

 

1977/79 Stylesides have fuel doors, 1973/76's have exposed fuel caps.

Ford calls bedsides > quarter panels.

 

Now y'all have me itching. Last couple years been dealing with some health issues … but, if I can do so, I want to spruce my '77 up some this year .... hood, cab are good, have aftermarket bedsides and Ford tailgate new and all the rubber for doors, even have two new aftermarket doors stored away … but my '77's doors are only bad at bottoms so now y'all have me thinking might be easier to reskin bottom part only, and leave doors on the truck. I bought my doors so long ago, forget cost but that's not a big deal. Maybe I would be better off cutting what I need from the new ones, since my OEMs are still solid above lowest few inches?

I have a painter that will do me a good, not hugely $$$ job.

TABCO huh?

First though, will take her to trans shop up the road and let them drop trans and replace frt seal that leaks on cold starts (seems to do OK once warmed and driven a few miles … but I don't trust that seal far from home.).

 

I would definitely patch the bottom of your original doors. Aftermarket doors came on my 77 F250 I got a few years ago and I can certainly tell the difference between those and the factory ones on my other trucks. The inner structure flexes and door panels rattle whenever I'm on a gravel road. The door panel isn't loose, I replaced all the clips when I first got it. I can literally feel the inner structure flexing with my elbow on the armrest. They even sound "tinny" and hollow when I close them.