Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinker
Well it's a truck so half the vehicle is the bed. Sorry to hear about the one costumer mac hill beds review... it's on my list. First I heard they are not perfect... I'm not delusional to think they make a exact replica of the bed sheet. Only hope it's good. What choice can you have at this point less you make it.
Best of luck! Lot of times we think perfect is some sort of thing we have to achieve. In reality, it's just a construct. Better is good to. It will get messed up if you drive it and way... Later make it perfect or buy a original ford. Your using aftermarket bolts too soooo...
Leave it better then when you got it.
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I know I am not the only Mack Hils customer that has had problems, and I have spoken to a couple guys that had similar issues with the hole locations. I am not looking for perfect, but I am looking for it to be at least as good as it was from Ford. I don't need "perfect", but I'd be remiss if I didn't do things as good as I could. Why should one settle or try to convince oneself that the idea of making it "perfect" is just a construct? In my experience, driving these old restored vehicles only gets messed up when you don't take the time to do things correctly. Sure, you get rock chips and things will get dirty, but things wont fall apart as they would if you skimp on things because you've convinced yourself that it's ok to settle for mediocre. Everyone has different expectations and skill levels when it comes to restorations, but I firmly believe that we should all take pride in our work and I hope to portray that in everything I do.
I have an enormous amount of experience working with aftermarket panels for vintage vehicles and I also make panels for them as well. I understand that new panels almost always require some tweaking here and there to make them fit properly. Some people are fine with slotting holes to make things fit. I have done this, within reason, but the amount these holes were off was unacceptable to me. I am restoring this pickup and I want it to be nice. I certainly don't want to hog out holes just to make the bolts fall through the holes. I would never modify an original part to make an aftermarket part fit, certainly not on a restoration. I would rather do it the right way since I am capable. Yes, I am using aftermarket bolts, but they are correct replicas from Roy and would not affect the alignment of the holes regardless. My post was not intended to be a bash on Mack Hils but I wanted to share an honest review and the process that I went through to make their bed panel fit. Full disclosure, I only expected a better product because they told me that it was an exact replica of the original bed floor, which it is not. It's close, but you can see in this thread what the differences are. I understand that Mack Hils fills a need in this industry, but you just cannot compare their products to original Ford beds. My conclusion... Repair not Replace!