The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks Shortening my longbed

Contemplating changing my 65 C10 long-wide into a short-wide. Can any of you experts tell me what I would need to do so? If I get a short chassis and short bed sides, will all my longbed components be able to complete the conversion? Will my long-wide bed front bolt to short sides? Will my tailgate bolt right in? Will wheel housings bolt right into the short sides? Anything else I need to consider?

I think you will be taking a section of the front as well as a section of the rear of the bed out. I would find a shortbox truck and change the frame and box.

I am no expert, but I don't see a problem with your plan, it's just different from what most folks do; cut down the frame, cut the bed sides, etc. But variety is the spice of life

Have you priced new bed sides and do you have a short bed truck frame? The bed sides are pricey and a short bed truck frame is a mighty popular item.

You'll also need short bed angle strips, short bed center strips and wood for a short bed (if you use long bed wood the holes won't be in the correct locations), not much money though in the overall scheme of things, but not nickle and dime either.

Gents,
To each there own but I do not agree with shortening a long bed truck. I use to own one and I loved it. There is a difference in the sporty short beds which seems more popular. Like I said, I love and prefer the long beds, they have a class and style of their own. I wish I had never gave mine away.

Here is a link to the show "Trucks!" and the episode shows how they cut the frame and bed to make it a short bed.

episode 10

Bread
.

Can someone tell me where I can find official dimensions of a 65 Short Bed frame?

I am not sure how a 65 frame is, but it was a simple task for me to make a short bed out of a 1974 4x4 3/4 ton Chevy pickup.
I found a new short bed that a contractor had taken off, in order to install a utility bed.
I cut my frame just behind the cab and removed (I think) 14 inches. Then rolled it up and welded the frame back and added re-inforcement plates.
Then cut 4 inches off the rear of the frame. Shortened the brake line. I used the driveshaft from a shortbed.
Then when I set the short bed on the frame (believe it or not) there were already holes in the frame,
and they perfectly fit the short bed holes!
I drove it many thousand miles without any problems with alignment or anything. It even made Off Road Magazine. Because there was no such thing as a 3/4 ton 4x4 shortbed!

A series of episodes on Trucks TV program did exactly what you want to do. The finished project was to be a daily driver and was light green.

I don't have a link to it, but you can get the info on Powerblock TV website. They went step by step, so should be a good info source.

Try this.

http://www.powerblocktv.com

Go to Shows - Trucks - Builds

about half way down '66 C-10

you can watch the whole episodes.

There is also an episode of Gears with Stacey David that shortened a truck bed. I thought his explanation of how he did the frame cut was very good. Google him if you're interested.

When I did mine I took 12" from under the cab, measured 24" 2-12" sections were marked off with a horizontal line down the center. That gave me a 4 section grid on the side of the frame. I cut the front upper section and the lower back out then overlapped the frame, this gave me a larger weld area, then added a 3/8" fish plate on the back side. Then you cut 8" off the back of the frame. Move the front bed mount back to the next bed mount and relocate the rear cab mounts. When I did my frame and finished the welding and grinding you could not see the splice. Mine was a 65 GMC with leaf springs so no problem with cross members. Do a search on 67-72 chevy truck page for all the details. I do not like butt welding frames, the overlapping method is much stronger. Just remember to measure twice or more and brace the hell out of your frame before cutting.

Thanks for all the ideas guys! I am anxious to get going on my project now. I think I am going to get a factory shortbed frame and just switch everything over from my long bed. Do you guys have any suggestions on what to do to my new frame before I switch components over? What's the best way to prep it? I don't want a show winner but a nice clean frame... will I need to sand blast the frame or what? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Oh, and I also will be using some short bed sides to make the switch over too. While I may need to do some rust repairs I won't have to be cutting down and shortening the frame or the sides any.

Over the weekend was able to find a nice 65 shorted frame and a pair of short fleet side bed sides to go with it! First step is power washing the 50 years of grease and road grime off...but the thing is in amazing shape...just a little surface rust.[image]http://www.tabbnet.com/C10/NewShortFrame.jpg[/image]

Awesome.. looking forward to seeing more.

Hot Rod John, I would like to display my project progress like you have... how do I do that?

The short answer: Start a build thread.

I chose the Classic Parts site for my build thread for two reasons:

1.0 You can revise your posts for years (some sites won't allow editing a post except for about a half an hour after the original post),
2.0 You can see the pictures in the posts.

I use Photobucket as the hosting site for my photo's.

Or you could start a build thread here on "The Stovebolt" and link to photo's if you would like... I prefer to see the photos.

I hope this is not rude, since the question was directed to HR John.

I really like Hot Rod John's build thread. No criticism from me. However, my choice was to start a Weebly.com BLOG. You can call it a website if you want. You have complete control of the website and content. You can edit it any time and it's FREE. No fees, no SPAM, other folks can leave comments if they want. You load the photos directly from your computer and do NOT need a separate Photobucket account or link to photos.

I've had mine up and running for over 2 years now and am very happy.

I just mention it as another option, not because it's necessarily better. You'll figure out what suits you best.

Jay

Not rude at all Lugnutz. I for one had never heard of Weebly, I learned something today.

Originally I used Webshots, when they went out of business and locked me out of many years of my photos I went with one of the big name hosting sites. Maybe a once bitten twice shy dealio

Love those aluminum slots and the GMC hood Lugnutz

Hot Rod John and Lugnutz, thanks so much for the ideas. I have just started my build-blog at http://65c10tion.weebly.com so please take a look and leave me some comments.

Nice start! I think it's a fun way to stay motivated and posting pics is a breeze!