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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?
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stella1216mo 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.
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murray.robert4mo 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.
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wright.leo6mo ago
Ugh, tell me about it, those diagrams might as well be cartoons!
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miastone6mo ago
Check the service bulletins, Leo found one last week.
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