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That one hidden bracket on a 2018 F-150 bed swap that ate my whole afternoon

Got a 2018 F-150 in with a smashed bed. Figured a bed swap was a straightforward 4 hour job. The main bolts came out fine, but there's a hidden bracket near the fuel filler neck that's not in the service diagrams. It's a single 13mm bolt, but it's completely rust-welded and you can't get a torch near it. Spent 3 hours just on that one bolt, trying penetrant, an impact, and finally had to carefully split it with a chisel. What should have been a half day turned into an 8 hour marathon. Anyone else run into these 'phantom' fasteners that aren't documented? How do you price for that risk?

4 comments

4 Comments

stella1212mo ago

Those hidden brackets are the worst. The factory diagrams are basically useless for anything but the main bolts. Pricing for that is a total guess, you just have to build in some extra time for every bed swap now.

murray.robert21d ago

Totally with you on that, @miastone and I were just wrestling with a Chevy bed swap last week and spent an hour hunting down a bracket that wasn't even on the diagram. It's like they HIDE them on purpose just to mess with our time estimates.

wright.leo2mo ago

Ugh, tell me about it, those diagrams might as well be cartoons!

miastone2mo ago

Check the service bulletins, Leo found one last week.