Ford Maverick DIY FlexBed’s Projects

updat­ed 2/12/2022

This is just a writ­ten-out ver­sion of the DIY instruc­tions by Ford found in their videos HERE. My expe­ri­ence with attempt­ing some of the projects are HERE.

Bed Divider

• Cut wood to size and place into built-in slots to cre­ate dividers
  • Rear Board (near tail­gate): 54in
  • Front Board (near cab): 43–1/4in

Bed Side Rails

• Mate­ri­als Need­ed:
  • Two - 30in, 12-gauge, half slot­ted met­al fram­ing strut chan­nels
  • Four - 12-gauge, blue, strut end caps for B‑series chan­nel
  • Four - ³⁄₈″ x ¹¹⁄₁₆″ machin­ery eye bolts
  • Four - 3/8in nylon strut cone nuts
  • Four - ³⁄₈″ x 1–1/2″ fend­er wash­ers
  • Six - M6 — 1.0 x 25mm inter­nal hex, but­ton-head cap screw (See note below)
  • Six - 1–1/4″ Fend­er wash­ers* (see step 2‑C)
  • Met­al File
• Ford’s How-To Video: HERE
  • Make sure to use safe­ty gear (glass­es, gloves, etc)
  • Step 1 — Smooth the Edges
    • After cut­ting the met­al struts into 30in pieces, smooth down the edges with a met­al file
  • Step 2 - Insert Cone Nuts
    • Insert 2 nylon cone nuts into each rail (will be used to attach eye bolts lat­er)
    • Align the rail with the cen­ter of the bed
    • Attach rail to bed with the M6 bolts and 1–1/4″ fend­er wash­ers
      • N.B. The video nev­er men­tioned these 1–1/4″ fend­er wash­ers in the mate­ri­als list, and then it appeared in this step
  • Step 3 — Attach Eye Bolts to Spring Nuts
    • Slide the nylon cone nuts to desired loca­tion for the eye bolts
    • Place 1–1/2″ fend­er wash­ers on each eye bolt and screw into strut cone nuts
    • Add end caps to rails
  • Done!
  • Note: The linked video calls for M6 screws, but the pre-drilled side holes in my Mav­er­ick are larg­er than M6’s. The orig­i­nal video from Ford calls for “a mix of M6 and M8 screws.” At this point in time I have yet to get my hands on M8 screws, so I don’t know for sure yet.

Bike Rack

• Mate­ri­als Need­ed:
  • One - 2″ x 6″ Wood Board approx­i­mate­ly 43.25in long
  • Two - Bike Fork Mounts (that fit your bike)
  • Six - #10 x 1–3/4″ Wood Screws
  • Four - Ratch­et Tie Down Straps
• Ford’s How-To Video: HERE
  • Step 1 — Posi­tion the Board
    • Insert board at wheel­house area (near the cab)
    • Smooth edges with sand­pa­per if need­ed
    • Fit should be snug but not dif­fi­cult
  • Step 2 — Attach Fork Mounts
    • Mea­sure 14–3/8″ from either side of the board
    • Mark the cen­ter (3 inch­es) of each mea­sure­ment
    • Align the fork mounts cen­tered on the marks
    • Mark hole posi­tions
    • Drill pilot holes with a ¹³⁄₆₄″ drill bit
    • Align mounts over the holes
    • Dri­ve screws in
    • Insert board with attached mounts into bed
  • Step 3 — Attach Your Bike
    • Remove front wheels and attach to fork mounts
    • Secure the mount fas­ten­ers
    • Use ratch­et tie downs to secure the seat tube to the anchors on truck bed sides
    • Pass straps of anoth­er tie-down across the top tubes and attach it at both sides
  • Step 4 — Secure Tires
    • Posi­tion wheels between the board and truck bed (against the cab)
    • Use adjustable strap to loop the wheel, wood board, and floor anchor togeth­er
    • Make sure all straps are secured tight­ly
  • Done!

Bed Rail Light­ing

• Mate­ri­als Need­ed:
  • Two - IP86 Rat­ed Water­proof Light­ing Strips
  • Sol­der­ing gun
  • Roll of Elec­tri­cal Tape
  • Pack­age Elec­tri­cal Shrinkwrap
  • One - IP86 rat­ed Water­proof Switch** (see N.B. at end of sec­tion)
  • Pair of Wire Strip­pers
  • Push-Pin Cable Ties
  • Scrap Wire
  • Heat Gun
• Ford’s How-To Video: HERE
  • Safe­ty Check!
    • Dis­con­nect Bat­tery
    • Nev­er illu­mi­nate while dri­ving
    • Make sure lights do not project above the rails
  • Step 1 — Find the Wire
    • Find wire (make sure bat­tery is dis­con­nect­ed!)
    • Remove the 12‑V access cov­er on D‑Pillar and pull the wiring har­ness from the hold­er
    • Unwind tape con­nect­ing the wire
  • Step 2 — Thread the Wire
    • Thread wire from top of pil­lar down to the har­ness
    • Use elec­tri­cal tape to secure the end of the wire to the match­ing con­nec­tor pig­tail pro­vid­ed with your truck
    • Pull wire from the top so you have suf­fi­cient length of the pig­tail to sol­der to your acces­so­ry
  • Step 3 — Heat the Wire
    • Stripe wires from acces­sories
    • Slide on shrinkwrap before mak­ing the joint
    • Sol­der red to red, and black to black
    • Slide shrinkwrap onto the joint
    • Heat shrinkwrap with heat gun until tight on the joint
    • Push con­nec­tor plate back inside the D‑pillar
  • Step 4 — Attach­ing to the Bed
    • Use cable ties to attach the light­ing so they shine towards the adja­cent bed­side
    • Cut light­ing to length, peel off back­ing to attach to bed, tight­en and trim cable ties
    • Deter­mine desired loca­tion of switch and secure
  • Re-con­nect bat­tery
  • Done!
  • N.B. It is nev­er clar­i­fied in the video, but I assume that you have to repeat on one side what you did on the oth­er? Do you run the strips along the far back of the bed to the oth­er side to con­nect them? The video shows cut­ting the light strip to fit one side. Or maybe have 2 switch­es, one for either side if you want 2?