I could not stomach the idea of dropping my fuel tank or lifting the bed just to access the pump, so I came up with this. Basically, I welded in some scrap 3/16" angle iron under the bed sheet metal after cutting my hole, and then drilled and tapped a couple of holes for bolts that sit below the high points of the bed material. Below is a short video I made going over the measurements:
Video outlining measurements

Here are some pics that outline the process as well. Initially, I expected to weld some reinforcing steel members to the bottom of the panel itself for strength, but I believe that's probably unnecessary. The corrugated nature of the panel material seems to provide all the rigidity it needs, and I not only stood on it directly, I even stomped on it pretty good and I weigh 225.

 

Looks pretty good to me. Beats the hell out of dropping the tank !! You will get more water in the connectors, so some dielectric grease will keep water and corrosion out of the fuel pump area.

 

That's a pretty good idea, thanks

 

your not supposed to drop the tank on a Truck

1) remove 8 bolts under bed with air gun

2) remove 8 nuts on tailgate with air wratched - pull up and back it's on the ground. oh yea, remove those 4 light connectors.

3) remove ground strap attached to filler tube (at the bolt to car frame btw, not on the tube), and the torx that hold the filler neck to the body (your filler tube should now be hanging loose)

3) slide bed back - doesn't need to come all the way off and you have full access to that area in general

your patch job is good and may come in handy

ALSO - THE SAME USED TO BE TRUE FOR THE CABIN - that you didn't remove the motor you removed the cabin like you would a truck bed. but ford gm china are F*(*(*# and made that as difficult as possible. a true shame - it had been so easy to work on truck engines in the past.