How to mount an AD bed to an S-10 frame

[RedneckRodder]

Just thought I'd share how I mounted my bed to the S-10 frame. Hadn't seen this done before, we actually tackled this job before I started looking around on the net for ways to to the S-10/AD swap. It might not work for everyone, but it worked for me.



The bed I'm using for this project was from a 55 1st series, with the flat topped bedsides. It was in great condition, all but the front panel. With using the S-10 frame I had to raise my bed floor in the bedsides. I lost a little over 5 inches of bed depth doing this, but my body is mounted much closer to the frame than most of these swaps, mostly because this is supposed to be a low buck project.

Either way, here's what I did: I had a pretty much complete reproduction long bed of the '47-53 variety. It was parts of a parts lot I bought a while back. I used the rear most cross sill, plug welded it to the front panel and bolted the panel in place with the bed sides. Then I put the bed in place using scrap wood and a couple floor jacks to build the front mounts. The rear bed mounts are just hangers I built off the rear frame that go to the original rear cross will. I'll post pics of that soon.
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[RedneckRodder]

Here's a close up of the brackets I built, and how the cross sill sits on it



Rear hanger is hard to see. Original rear cross will is still in its original location.



The bar pictured here will be what the bed wood now sits on. The gap below will have a filler panel. We opted to use the '47-'53 tailgate as well so as not to have too big of a panel to stare at when the tailgate is down.


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[Midgets50]

for the tailgate situation i think a member on here had similar issue yours has. he shortened the tailgate and just made it drop down where the level with the floor

[RedneckRodder]

Originally Posted by Midgets50

for the tailgate situation i think a member on here had similar issue yours has. he shortened the tailgate and just made it drop down where the level with the floor

I used the '47-'53 tailgate for mine. The small panel that will be hidden behind the tailgate will have an access for the spare tire carrier on the S-10 frame. Since I intend this to be a daily driver, the spare tire will be a necessity. So i took this as more of an opportunity to hide the hole than an inconvenience.
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