Tonneau striker reinforcement

[Duncan Kimbro]

Hello all. I just bought a 2003 ST this week (so I'm a new member to the site) and was lucky enough to pick up an OEM tonneau cover from Craigslist today. It doesn't have the strikers, and I found them on the fordparts.com site for about $18 each. However, the parts diagram also shows a "Striker Reinforcement" that looks like a steel plate with three holes to match the holes in the bed. I'm assuming I also need four of the "Striker Reinforcements" as well as the strikers themselves. Can anyone confirm this?



By the way...I love this site and really appreciate what everyone has posted for tips, tricks and fixes.

 

[Chris Smith 8]

When I got mine, there were no such reinforcements. I've never heard of them. Anybody else?

 

[Steve McKellop]

If you're talking about the parts that bolt to the bed, I would assume the "reinforcement" is the part behind the bed side wall. Post a photo or link to the parts diagram you're looking at.



These are the strikers and bolts

This is what's behind the bed wall to bolt the strikers to.

If it's the 286B56 then it's already on the bed.

 

[Duncan Kimbro]

That's it in your second photo. Thanks Steve! That saved me about $60 and untold frustration. The diagram feature on Ford's parts website is handy, but it isn't perfect, and you can't tell that the reinforcing brackets are behind the bed shell.



In case anyone's interested, the link to the list is included. If you install the Internet Explorer add-on, you can see the digrams.

 

[Steve McKellop]

:supercool: Welcome to the site, BTW!:welcome: