LongShot Fabrications Frame Shortening Kit

[LockDoc]

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So I had a complete 1/2 ton frame left over from the '71 Chevy truck I bought a few years ago. I used some of the sheet metal parts off of it for the Black Dually build. The frame had a lot of new parts put on it, like new trailing arms, brakes, complete front end rebuild, and steering gear. I have a pretty nice short bed box so I decided to shorten this frame so I could put the short bed box on it. I decided on the LongShot Fabrications Kit because it was quite a bit cheaper than the brothers kit.

https://www.longshotfab.com/products...bed-conversion

The first thing I would recommend is to measure the distance of the cab mounts on each side of the frame. I measured from the back of the hole on the front cab mount bracket to the back of the hole on the rear cab mount bracket. Mine measured 41 3/4" on each side. I wrote this measurement on the front bracket so I wouldn't forget it. (Pictures 1&2) No matter who you buy your kit from, and especially if you bought an older kit that has been floating around for a few years DO NOT rely on the company's measurements for the location of the rear cab mounts. Do your own calculations from the measurements you took as a first step.

The cutting guide fit the outside of the frame rail great, except I didn't have a hole in my frame where the 5/16" bolt was supposed to go, in the rear area. (Picture 3) I used a step drill bit to drill the 6 holes per side for the 3/8" bolts. My smallest step drill had a 1/8" size for the first step and that fit in the small template holes perfectly. After cutting the bracket and frame I bolted the frame stiffener bracket inside of the front half of the frame rails (picture 4) and slid the front and rear back together. (Picture 5&6) I had to run the step drill thorugh a couple of the holes for the 3/8" bolts because they did bot line up perfectly. Not a big deal though.

After bolting everything up I checked the top of the frame rail with the long side of a framing square to make sure the top of the rails were flat. Then I checked the squareness of the frame by X meassuring corner to corner. That was off by 1/8 of an inch, which is within factory specs from what I read. I tack welded the joints in a few places because I will have to take it over to a friend of mine to have him weld it for me. My welder is not up to the task for the penetration needed for this type of project.

I then moved on to the rear body mounts. I figured out about where the brackets would go and clamped them on with a pair of "C" clamp Vise Grips so I could make the final adjustments on them. Using the measurements made as the first step In the process, I put a second pair of Vise Grips on them so they wouldn't move and used a centering transfer punch to mark the center of the exixting holes in the bracket. I drilled the holes, again using the same step drills.

Time to cut off the rear 8" of the frame rails. I did not use the kit template for this step either I just measured them and squared them off with a tri-square and cut them with a sawzall. (Pictures 7&8) Everything went together pretty smooth.

One of the great tools I bought years ago works good whenever you are drilling and/or grinding, to pick up the metal shavings. You just run it over the floor and it picks up the shavings, then hold it over the trash can and pull the "T" handle up and it drops the stuff into the trash can. No trying to scrape it off of the magnet. (Last 2 pictures)