Long bed to Short bed thoughts?

[rs74]

I am looking at an 85 long bed diesel silverado that is in pretty decent shape for the most part. It does have some rust in the bed. I would like to have a long bed but thinking about a short bed instead. I have found a short bed and frame for about $300. I am thinking that if I am going to have to do body work on the long bed then maybe just buy the short bed and have it painted to match.

To cut to the chase here and opinions are probably going to be a little of each. Should I just think about cutting down the long bed or switch everything over to the short bed frame. I would probably break even between fixing and painting the long bed and just buying the short bed and painting to match the cab other than doing all the transferring of parts.

I have been looking for a 6.2 truck just for mileage purposes since I would be making it my daily driver while the K30 dually serves as the pack mule and my 85 short bed is in the middle of a rebuild. So cut it down or put switch everything over to the short bed frame.