My new 71 shorty bed

[2bits]

71tahoe if I do the mod, you can have the fender for the price of shipping, and maybe a little for my time to pack it. I'm pretty good at packing parts, I would think it wouldn't be more than $30, but I don't want to get ahead of myself, I'm just kicking this around.

Hey Rick, When you say you have a few, do you mean complete beds? Looks like you're about a 6-7hr drive from Dallas. Not sure I could take that trip yet, but when I was ready I could take my old bed off and just put the new one on the frame good enough to get it home. PM me and let me know how much, once I get some road time and confidence built up in the new engine, I might be up for a road trip. at least I'll be getting 20MPG anyway so that wouldn't be so bad

Brad, I like it too, thank you for the compliment! People ask me what it looks like and I say it looks like a ZZ top Truck or something I think the factory 67-72 stepside's are just a wee bit too long in front of the fender where the step is, so this was perfect for me, and I have always thought about doing a long bed to short bed conversion by moving the axle rather than cutting the frame, I didn't think it could be done well... I don't think mine was done well, but it was done better than half-a$$ed, and I am trying to take up the slack on the rest. I am also being practical too, because once I put the gas tank/tool box in, I'm only gonna have a three foot bed, and I want to have some of that bed left for snuggling under the stars! With a slightly longer bed, it would still be way short, the only change really would be that the rear of the truck would extend back the full length of the step fender, which I guess really isn't a full foot, I think it's more like 4-5 inches. Buying a full bed might be just as much as it would cost a body guy to weld the existing fenders tho so who knows. You said it would look like so many other's, do alot of people do this mod? Removing the front step, and sliding it forward?

I DO have a question though, can someone measure what the full length of a regular stepside fender is? Nothing super precise, but I am interested to see what the difference in length would actually be. Mine is 55" across at about halfway down.

[RicksTrucks]

Originally Posted by 2bits

Hey Rick, When you say you have a few, do you mean complete beds? Looks like you're about a 6-7hr drive from Dallas. Not sure I could take that trip yet, but when I was ready I could take my old bed off and just put the new one on the frame good enough to get it home. PM me and let me know how much, once I get some road time and confidence built up in the new engine, I might be up for a road trip. at least I'll be getting 20MPG anyway so that wouldn't be so bad

I DO have a question though, can someone measure what the full length of a regular stepside fender is? Nothing super precise, but I am interested to see what the difference in length would actually be. Mine is 55" across at about halfway down.

I can get you some measurements tomorrow. Yes, I have at least two stepside beds. I will get you pics and pricing in the next day or two. I can usually make Dallas in under 5 hours and do pass thru there often. I should be coming in the next couple of weeks delivering a truck to Austin.

[Gray Ghost]

I think the factory length of the bed is 6.5 feet. I think that mod with the bed would look cool.

[2bits]

Awesome Rick, yes let me know! Also, let me know their conditions and all that too. Thanks!

[watahyahknow]

lets see if i got this right you going to put the fenders on a longer midsection to get more loadspace right?
the midsection shouldnt be that hard to be made by a metal worker on a bendingmachine its all straight sheetmetal you could put in a nice polished wood floor and youre golden , as for sleeping under the night sky you could make a deck on the bed strong enough to hold youre weight , it would go over the box and gastank youre planning to put in there and it would be a nice (long) and flat surface to put a camping foam bed on , only thing will be you kindah on display when sleeping 3 to 4 foot above the ground

[2bits]

Check out this pic, and you'll see my predicament... I caught this truck mid-way through the customization. They PO actually cut the side fenders to make them shorter as well as cutting the bed itself. I am looking to put regular size fenders on it, and have the bed be exactly as long as the stock fenders. That way it will still have the same look to it, but save me from having to weld these fenders together. The simplest and cheapest way I can think of is to get a stock bed, and cut the front off right where the fenders begin, then bolt up the front plate to the opening and be done with it. The bed and fenders are rust free and mostly dent free, so I could have it welded up this short, but I am afraid it would be big $$$ to get it looking right, and I would like a tiny bit more room back there... Interesting idea about the bed cover. Might do that anyway, but I have a stained wood bed and the box is going to be real nice too so I would want to keep it open to show it off most of the time. Thanks for the input!

[2bits]

Well, I picked up a pretty decent Stepside bed from Tony (TexasSquareBodies) here on the board. He is a heck of a nice guy. I ordered a bed kit for it minus the wood, I am going to make that myself, because it's cheaper, and I like to do it myself, and also because this 73 bed is going on my 71 truck, and the bolt holes probably wouldn't line up anyway.

Here's some pics of it, not bad for $250!

[Rickey]

Hey 2-Bit is that wreaking yard off hwy 80 on the south side. I though I saw a yard there with a few trucks on Sat.

[Gray Ghost]

This yard is on I-20 about 20 miles east of Terrell or so.

Thomas...let me know when you are ready to do the wood, we can use my shop and I already have the patterns.

[Andy4639]

With u-bolts through the frame those leaf springs aren't doing a bit of good weather they are there are not. This picture shows why it so harsh of a ride.
The frame is bolted to the rear end.

[2bits]

Rickey, yeah that's the same one! You take Exit # 512 heading East, and the access road will turn into his street!

Andy, yeah, keep reading the rest of the pages on this thread, other people thought the same thing at first. The photo sure looks like it is bolted to the frame but it's not at all. It was sitting very close to the frame when I first got it in that pic. I have already replaced the rear leaf springs in it a few months ago as you read on too. I am going to replace the front springs too to get it back up to OEM ride height all the way around.

[2bits]

OK, now that I have the new bed, how am I going to put it on? I need to move the rear wheels back. Unfortunately, my truck was originally a longbed so just putting the trailing arms back on and moving the rear end back to it's original location isn't going to work. I could just cut my existing frame short in the middle but all the original suspension is gone, and the back of the frame is cut off, so I figure I also need to get another shortbed frame and do a long bed to shortbed conversion.

My friend at another yard has a shortbed frame he would sell me for $75! Another friend who is an experienced welder said he would be glad to help do the cutting and boxing in for the new frame so it looks like it is on as soon as I can get over and pick up that frame section. I plan on making the new wood bed myself with the help of my woodworker buddy Kelly, so the bed floor will be immaculate too. This is slowly turning into the truck of my dreams!

Here are some pics of the frame donor truck.

[bad6772]

i cant wait to see ya get it all together. do you got any plans for your old frame...it would make a good rock crawler

[Boog]

Thomas. So are ya now going back to a standard short wheel base setup and using a 73 up bed? It won't be a stumpy then...

[Gray Ghost]

I've got big plans for the old shorty bed....it's going to become a trailered smoker! Our club functions will now have a portable smoker with room for wood and other goodies as well!

I'll be doing two wood beds this summer/fall....one in Pine and one in the finest wood on the planet [exact type to be revealed later in another thread]. Looks like the two kits will spawn templates for future bedwood projects, something I have been wanting to do for a long time.

This will be a very cool project to document, between Thomas and I, we'll get a ton of pics for posterity!

[2bits]

Yeah Boog, I really like the 73 beds and the 71 front, so this is the perfect combination for me. It won't be the super short custom version, but it will still be custom with the 73 bed on it. I guess I'll need to change the name of the truck, I call it Shorty now hmm... I am also hoping it will make it less of a cop magnet too, but it is always going to be tough...

I gotta keep my rear Axle but Kelly is going to drop a trailer axle under it which will be a whole lot lighter. I am glad the shorty bed won't just get crushed, but will live on making some of the best BBQ around!

[Gray Ghost]

I think the new name will come to you post haste when the bed is on and the final shape takes form. The name you have now was a no-brainer, but the new one might have to take a bit of thinkin' for you.

Thanks for the kind words Thomas. First BBQ will be right after we get the trailer finished! Course we'll have to make a run somewhere other than my backyard since the smoker will be on wheels!!

[watahyahknow]

if you know someone with a small lathe he might be able to make some new (oversized) bushes from a piece of bronze round stock or maybe a carbshop has the bushes you need .
if you have them made make the outside slightly oversize and the inside slightly undersize .
you ream out the holes in the carb where the trottle shaft goes through front to back so everything is alighned again then push in de new bushings maybe heat the carb on a stove to make the aloy expand a little and you should be able to push them in , let everything cool and then ream the inside to exactly the size needed allso through and through , this should fix the problem ..... oil the bronze before you put them in by closing the bottom fil it up with light oil put youre finger on top and press the bronze is a bit open and the oil goes in the pores of the material

it might be that the trottle shaft is bent causing the exessive wear

[Brad]

Very interesting- what is that?

[2bits]

Hmm.. what is what? haha... Generallly speaking it is a 71 Chevy Stepside, with an inline 6 250, with a 1bbl to 2bbl carb adapter, running a 2bbl carb.

There is also an inline fuel pressure gauge installed in case you were looking at that. There was a post on the stovebolt forum about a possibility of too much fuel pressure keeping the needle from seating properly, so I installed it to see, but the fuel pressure was fine, looks cool tho...

Lemme know if there's something I missed!

[Brad]

No, no, no. What is the carb?

[2bits]

hehe thanks, it's a stock Rodchester 2bbl I found on the shelf from my old 1970's 350-V8, I forgot I had it, and it stil had a 4bbl adapter plate on it! Now it's got a 1bbl adapter plate haha! That's carb has seen alot of different engines... The engine has alot more power now, If I put some headers on it, it will be alot better too. Hedman has them for $179 but I think I want to actually drive the truck for a while before I tear into it again!

[2bits]

Pics for the build thread (Can someone please move this to the build thread section? thanks!)

Pulled the shortbed frame I stole for $75!

[2bits]

Updating my build thread with new pics of the completed truck for those open minded souls who might be interested. BEEN A LONG TIME COMIN! I've got 600 miles on the new engine so it is all broke in now, and it is still running good so I am hoping my major problems are behind me.

For all the nay sayers and do-badders out there, please read the whole thread before bashing my late model bed. I have done a crapload of work to this truck on a shoestring budget. I might have gone with a 67-72 bed but I don't have alot of that little thing called MONEY and I got this complete, rust free bed for $250. On top of all that I actually like this style bed better, it's what I grew up with so for crying out loud please keep the comments positive, this is supposed to be a truck CLUB, not a bashing party for people just doing the best they can. One last try... This truck looks completely bad ass IMO and I wouldn't change a thing.

Here ya go!

This first one was taken at MIDNIGHT in black night


The money shot:


Please excuse the pole :roll:


A couple more...

[andrewt2]

you know, at first it looked kind of funny to me but i say good job on the bed i looked over the pics a couple of times and i kind of like it looks differnt and diffantely not a bad choice for 250 bucks! i say kudos for shooting for something different!