[Ace5n85]

I'm usually a longbed guy. I've owned a few of them and they're definitely useful, the problem is, well, they're LONG.

This aint gonna cut it.



Time to cut the bed apart. The new bedsides would cost me 910 bucks to get to my door, and I have more time than I do money.

Remove the inside of the bed. Theyll be shortened vertically later, since simply raising the bed and rebolting it looks unfinished to me.

Now for the scary part. Needed to take 14 inches out of the front to match a shortbed. Like this.

MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE. The straighter the cut the less prep time before welding.



I didnt match the stake pocket cut yet because I wanted to measure and cut after I could get the exact dimensions.



BAM





Magnets and panel clamps showed me that my gap was suitable for welding. These clamps DID NOT stay there during welding, they just allowed me to see the uniformity of the gap before I welded it and couldn't adjust anything.







Got out the Miller Syncrowave 210. Ran it at 36 amps. I only weld an inch or two at a time and finish it before moving to the next piece. A friend of mine does this method for a living and it works extremely well for him.



Flap disc on a grinder and a LOT of vixen file work.







A little bit of undercut but not too bad for my first time welding body panels.









THIS LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER!









Well, that's where we're at so far. I think the bed came out awesome, especially considering this is the first sheet metal I've welded that wasn't practice scrap. A skim of body filler and itll be fine.