Hey y'all.

I have my first el, a 1st year 4th generation.

It has no effective place to tie down cargo, and I'd love to have those typical elky raised up bed rails installed in place of the flush-to-the-body chrome strips that are in it now.

Is this an option on a 73, and how should I proceed? I have seen some
new bed rails for sale that are supposed to fit this car, they are kind of generic chrome truck bed rails.

Thanks for the help....Tommy

The bed rails are mostly decoration and attach to the outside of the truck body. My opinion is that you'd be better served by getting some "in bed" tie downs. Sort of reminds me of the ones I have in my boat. Handy and when not being used they fold into themselves and are simi flush.

My 80 had the in bed tie downs, one on each corner and seemed like a better deal than the bed rails, if your going to be needing to tie down cargo. I had the bed rails on the 72 and removed them they were loose and had wollowed out really big holes in the rear quarter where the screws went in. They are very flimsy.

i'll check out the in bed tie downs... I was wondering if the bed rails were flimsy, the chrome on there now seems a bit loosey goosey

thanks for the help
Tommy

I think bed rails are a bad idea. Go to your local boat supply house and get some boat cleats. They come in all sorts of sizes. I used black "plastic" ones in my bed and you don't even notice that they are there.