800 Rear crossmember/body mount

["Myron Ware" <cmw@domain.elided>]

Hi all,
  My rear bumper has seemed loose since I got the truck, so I thought 
I'd replace the bolts holding it all together.  The twobumper  
mounting brackets are bolted to the rear crossmember, the body tub is 
also mounted to this crossmember.  There is a bed support that runs 
the width of the back end above the crossmember.  This support is 
bolted to the cross member at the main frame rails on each side.  The 
problem is that the body tub mounting bolts also go through this 
support to hold the body down, allowing the bed's sheetmetal to 
effectively hide the nut for the bolt that holds the rear cross 
member to the main frame rails.  There, that's about as clear as mud, 
right? :)  Of course, this crossmember-to-framerail bolt is loose on 
each side.  My dilemma is that I either have to drill a small access 
hole in the bed's sheetmetal, or loosen the body mounts back there 
and hope I can lift the tub enough to get to the nuts.  Is it okay to 
just loosen the rear bed bushing mounts, lift the tub up somehow to 
access the nut, then put it back together?  It seems like the mody 
might get tweaked a bit by doing this.  I'd prefer not to do any 
sheetmetal damage, but I don't have the means to lift the tub as a 
unit and go about replacing all the body bushings at this time (which 
would be my preferred course of action).  Please cc: to me directly, 
as I've got a trip planned this weekend.
Thanks,
Myron
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C. Myron Ware  Senior Prog/An, CNE/CNA |  NASA Langley Research Center
Email c.m.ware@domain.elided           |  Hampton, Va   23681
http://cnb-www.larc.nasa.gov/~ware/cmw-home.html  (work) or
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