[kevinr1970]

Look for a post from OJOE about making a crew cab short bed.
For doing the conversion he took the rear section of a short bed frame and "grafted" it onto the long bed frame using the bolt holes from the cab mounts as locators.

It might be easier to do with a 1-ton frame because of the frame differences but I would think you could do it with a 1/2-ton frame too.
Not much cutting and if you line up the cab mount holes your gauranteed to get it back together square.

Of course this requires having a short bed frame available to you? I have a 4x4 short bed that has a bent frame in the front. I have been resisting getting rid of it thinking I may be able to do a 4x4 crew cab short bed conversion but the signifigant other is tightening the screws...