howdy Gordon, welcome to the shop, alaways good to see another Task Force truck
"somewhat" rare, yes - GM made over 200,000 light trucks in '55, and as vehicles bought to do jobs, not a lot of folks put down the extra money for options like the 'panoramic window' and the new V8, and not a lot of them survived the work they were assigned
beyond that, I don't know of anyone who's keeping track of how rare old trucks are, looking in the gallery here you'll find about equal numbers of all the TF years, and many folks nowadays prefer to have the big windows and V8's, although you'll find the 265 not the most common, very spendy to rebuild, and usually scrapped
as far as shortening, anything is possible with enough skill and money - some states frown on cutting/welding frames, and if you turn your 3200 into a 3100 there's a lot more to it than finding another bed - and of course then the "rare" question becomes meaningless .... the step beds are the same 55-66, long or short
good luck with whatever you decide to do with it, keep us up to date - also we all do like pictures
Bill
