Stepside beds

[RicksTrucks]

Is the bed portion and tailgate for a 60-66 the same as the 67-72 stepsides. I thought I had read that the bed itself hadn't changed, just the fenders.

[stllookn]

At the very least, I know the rear frame mounts and taillight mounting holes are different. I have mixed parts from three generations of beds and they all seem to have some minor differences. You will certainly have to fill most of the fender mount holes and redrill them. It think only one or two holes on either side is correct for the '67-'72 fenders.

[sneakysnake]

dont forget the steps are different too.

[MAR-Ktech]

Bed side interchange

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There are a couple more things to know when making this interchange besides the fenders and fender holes being wrong. If you use your 67-72 fenders, you have to use the 67-72 steps. They will bolt to the early bedsides mounting holes. The 60-66 cross sills have the 1" spacers welded on them making the bed sit about an inch higher than the 67-72. Also they are not in the same location so the early bed will sit about an inch farther toward the rear than the 67-72. The late rear sill mounting brackets are a lot different than the 60-66. If the 60-66 bed is 60-62, the brackets are spaced a lot farther apart and will not even sit on the late frame extensions. The original tailgates will interchange for both years. GMC changed script in 63, Chevy stayed the same from 54 to 87. If you can re-use your old rear sill and cross sills, the 60-66 angle strips will still position the cross sills wrong unless you re-drill the angles to the late pattern. Its a minor point, but the diameter of the top bed side curl also changed at this time. Probably not noticed unless you intend to mix the two years on the same truck. We have a few more pointers in this tech article. http://www.mar-k.com/bed_side_interchange_gm.html This swap can be done, but it is a lot of holes to weld up to make it like original.

Mar-Ktech