bed swap

[Longhorn Man]

I plan on doing the bed swap Saturday night... I'll be at the shop all night most likely, have lots to do.
For my sister's B-day i got her a muffler for her little crap box Festiva. (I like practicle gifts) then I gotta give it a wash and wax.
After that, i gotta rtip down a carb and see that it is all good and slap it on the caddy to test it.
Then, I'll be doing the bed swap. I plan on getting the old bent up bed off, steam cleaning the rear frame rails off and gettin crazy with the POR. Rear axle, frame rails, springs... It'll all be nice and pretty. Then slap the new bed on. While the POR is drying, I plan on sanding and priming the bed so at least the primer gray will match the front clip. Probably going to install a temp ply wood floor too. I hate doing it, but it is better than the freeway sign I have under the bed liner. That sucker makes all kinda of noise on every little bump.
I found an old beat up cab/chassis 68 chevy today, I may go see what they want for it. It looked like a 133 inch wheel base and it has daul rear wheels... might have a place to put my old bed. Heck, if I can get the truck cheap, I might just do that, put it all in one color of primer or something and turn around and make a buck off of it.
We'll see what happens. Since we all love pics... here's what I'm dealing with...

One pic is of the green and white bed that is going on,
another pic is of the lovely floor I discovered under the bed liner,
and one more pic that shows the damage on the side of the bed...this is from years ago before I knew it existed and it still had a tool box door. Just to make it look even worse, that box was MIA long before I got it.

[72armyswbtruck]

Ouch when did that happen?

[Longhorn Man]

Oh yeah... and one for longhornjeff.... he doesn't remember seeing this pic...

See what I was talking about Jeff? Looks stock to the untrained eye.... which is close enough for me. And they are WAY easier on my back than the stock bench was.
And since you brought up dash chrome....






It still looks much like this today... that steering wheel is long gone and in chevyfatman's hands, the radio delete has been tossed in favor of a Pioneer Super tuner III CD player... the heater control panel has been replaced with a nice one that actually works...

heck, while I'm digging up old pictures...here's what the sucker looked like inside the day after I got the truck.... this was after a few hrs with a trash can and some good cleaner.

[Longhorn Man]

That damage was there before I got it...
I got the truck from a member on here... oldchev4X4. The pic there showing the bed side was a pic he took shortly after getting it himself. The original owner did that... allong with the front end damage seen here. This is what happens when you follow a bus too closely.

[FleetsidePaul]

You gotta keep the sign "Garage Art"

[Palf70Step]

Good Luck with the swap Andy. The horn is making improvements all the time. Loosk a lot better and different from when you dru it on home.. Now enter the BEAST here

[Longhorn Man]

ahh, just found this one.. .better view of the damage the original owner did.

[Palf70Step]

Bet that hurt

[Longhorn Man]

Well, there was no face prints on the glass...
The original owner didn't seem to care too much. He bought it just to tote around a camper, and let the truck go to hell. He let the water in the engine freeze, and instead of doing a proper engine swap, they butchered a Pontiac 350/TH350 in there, and lots of other 1/2 assed fixes.

But heck, if it wasn't a POS... I woulda never been able to get it.

[davidh]

[ Hey longhorn man how did you rig up that truck to tow? I've got an extra tow bar(Aren't they all the same?) and was wanting to rig it to where I could just bolt on a 60-80 GM front end. Do you have any pics of how it's mounted?

[sdkid]

Seats and dash look great. My tach is installed the same way. BTW, what are your seats out of?

[krue]

Gonna look a lot better when you get thru with the bed swap!

[Longhorn Man]

They are actually not all the same.
If you have a bumper you want to keep and keep nice... or even somewhat decent. REMOVE IT. It took me 3 damaged bumpers before I figured this out.
On my old tow bar, you could connect it directly to the frame rails where the bumper bolted on.
Here's a couple examples.. you have to look close on the bumper or frame rails to see though...


This pic is what she looked the first morning she was in my hands...this is at oldchev's place moments before hitting the road. And yes... LonghornJeff and I dragged a one ton pick up...with a k/5 blazer...and yes... it was FUN






I sold that tow bar when i sold my old SWB GMC to board member CHEVYE. I replaced it with this one, which in some ways is better... other ways not better. I can't bolt this one directly to the frame like the old simple a frame. (this one is hinged and adjustable) So i had to take some steel stock, mount the brackets to it, then mount it to the frame of the vehicle being towed.


Something else I did that is a kick ass idea... I made a light harness to go from the trailer plug on the tow vehicle, and plug it into the stock tail light harness on the towed vehicle. This way, when you hit the brakes in the driver, the lights on the disabled truck light up... no extra lights to carry and wonder if they'll work... real good stuff.

[Longhorn Man]

sdkid, the seats are off of E-bay... a $125 (IIRC) score a year and a half ago... they are bostrom seats, aftermarket utility type parts... not stock in anything we'd own. Commonly found in P/30 trype step vans or dump trucks.

[JAKES 68GMC]

YIKES. That truck has come a long way since when you first got it. You are pretty lucky to find another longhorn bed in that good of shape, IMO. Have fun working on it.

[Longhorn Man]

Actually, a decent longhorn bed is easier to find than a decent short fleet. Sad and sick, but true.
Even with that being said... I'll still agree with you.
There was a catch... I had to go too Kalamazoo Michigan to get it... and in order to get the low price of free... I had to take everything that was bolted to it too.


This was a gift of sorts from an inactive board member by the name of protrucks.
Even after cutting the truck up into itty bitty pieces, putting it all in the back of my longhorn... we are talking complete front and rear suspentions, whole frame... engine, tranny, drive shaft, bed... pluss the crap I normally carry.... I still wasn't on the over load springs.
And this was it's fate...

[Palf70Step]

Gifts are always good. Glad to see I ain't the only one pulling my 67-72 stuff with a Dooge

Hey Andy, did Longhorns all have wood beds or did they also come with a steel floor??

[Longhorn Man]

that wasn't by choice.
Esp considering I paid for the gas..... 10 MPG...I coulda used an old junk cool truck and gotten that kind of MPG.
Stupid Hemi crap.

[Longhorn Man]

I didn't see the secod part of your post there earlier...
All longhorns came with wooden floors stock.
I have come across one here in a junk yard a couple years ago, where some one made a steel floor. Did a dam good job on it...but a good eye could see the welded line in the floor. That one threw me for a loop when I saw the floor out the corner of my eye...I was like WTF!?!?!

[special-K]

That guy hit a school bus?Oooh,bad rap,dude.

[longhorn70gmc]

Hey Andy,
Hope all is well with you! Man, After seeing your original trucks pics, man my bed looks pretty good. I haven't posted picks yet because I want to replace the bed first. I have found a perfect replacement out here for $250. I hope to have it soon. I love this thread Andy! Longhorns are just Cool! Take care and I look forward to your Finish on that fine Longhorn!!!

[davidh]

Tractors with front end loaders are man's best friend on the farm!! you even got some 3/4 hubs caps out of the deal. Now you can sell that frame or keep as a spare or make a long, long flatbet. Longhornman pm me. I want to show you something.

[stllookn]

Andy...is it done yet?

[Longhorn Man]

dave, PM sent, billy... Hey man! you NEED to swing around here more often, ain't heard from you in a couple years if memory serves... stllookin.... I got it on there, but I'm going to make you wait untill tomorow to show off the pics. I'll say this much...
1. the bed without wood, weighs in at 450 pounds acording to our junk yard scales... loading and unloading the bed 3 times will make a man sore and tired.
2. I have POR15 all over my arms... and on my BACK!
3. When there is no wood in the bed, you can remove the bed...with no assistance... in an hr.
4. Did I mention I am sore?
5. With no bed on, you can spin the tires for 1/4 mile... or longer if you have enough road.
6. I hurt from the hair down.
7. working on my truck (after a full 10 hr day at the shop) for 18 hrs will make you sleep for a solid 14 hrs (!!!!) and want more when you wake up in the morning. (Yes... I slept from 3 PM untill 5 am... ask lytleredrydinghood, she called me, but I have no recolection of it)
8. It feels like the bed fell on me and pinned me for 10 hrs... I am THAT sore.

Pics to follow tomrow.
Did you notice I went all weekend without logging on here? Can you believe that i made it? Do you believe that I am still sore... and tired?

[Canadian694x4]

Andy you sore at all from lifting the bed? Can't wait to see the pics man...