'73 8 foot bed

[JAWs7227]

What difference, if any, is there between a '73 J4000 8 ft bed and a '76 J10 8 ft bed? Looking at buying a parts truck with a good bed to replace the bed on my J10.

[tgreese]

At some point ca 1973 Jeep changed from the single-wall bed with round taillights and tailgate chains to a double-walled bed with rectangular taillights and a centered tailgate latch. The '76 will be the later style bed. Even if the style does not match, it should still fit on the frame. Solid beds are not plentiful - I would just get it and make it fit. They are effectively the same wheelbase, and everything should line up ok.

If the '73 is the earlier single-wall bed, that's why it's not rusted out. The later double-wall design holds moisture and rusts through at the seams.

[Rod2]

The '73 is a double wall bed, and they rusted before they left Toledo, Ha, Ha! Mine got banged up pretty badly before I got it 27 yrs ago, so it had reason to rust out.
I put an '85 on mine with a bit of re-aligning--most notably in the mount perches. The rear 4 are in line, but the second from front is off slightly enough to just enlarge holes for bolt passage. The front mounts were far enough off that I had to modify outward my frame perches to line up the bed holes. I chose to weld on the truck rather than the bed. Minor problems arose with the gas tank position; my '73 tank was mounted differently. I made new strap mounts on the '85, new filler access, and new vent pipe route through the bed cross beams. But if you have the '76 tank, you will dodge that. I don't know if the '76 has holes for the stainless strip of the '73 or not; the '85 didn't--it does now. Body lines are identical, so if I don't tell, no one knows that the bed is 12 yrs newer than the truck, and when people say how nice it is for a truck that old, I just smile. Now, with that being said, '73 is a lot closer to '76 than it is to '85, so there may not be as many or any differences between your 2.
I say go for it!
Good luck, it can be done.

[carnuck]

If your tail lights are the same, it's an easy swap.