Shorty's Longbed to Shortbed conversion

[2bits]

As many of you know, my stepside is a longbed frame that was shortened the "wrong" way by the PO by slapping on a leaf spring rear end and moving it up and cutting off the fear of the frame. I worked hard to get all the kinks out of it, except the fenders were cut too and that is alot of $$$ to get those puppies smoothed out. A 73-87 bed and a 69 Shortbed frame presented itself to me for cheap last month, so here we go with a longbed to short bed conversion on this really short bed truck I got the Classic parts frame braces, although we had to cut them down slightly, and just did a butt weld. With the braces, there should be no worries. Everything lined up and squared up great. We got the frame swapped today, and tomorrow is bolting up the rear end. Installing the new bed will be a project within itself since the mounts are different, and I am going to install my Blazer tank first as well as rebuild the bed with new wood.

Here are a couple of teaser pics, the full gallery is here:

http://www.grossepointegothic.com/71stepside/FrameSwap/

New Frame and Bed:


Shorty Arrives!

[earl87gta]

Looks like fun. That pic with the front end off the ground is great.

[Boog]

So Thomas. What finally made you decide to put er back to stock wheelbase? It was.......different. Hey you can make a shorty trailer out of the already shortened bed and frame.

[2bits]

I wanted the truck to look good and the cut up rear fenders didn't look good, and these items presented themselves, so I went this route. I think getting the fenders smoothed out would have been alot of $$$ I also like the way the 73-87 stepside beds look, and I am wanting to do a Blazer tank which I couldn't do with the old bed. I thought it looked cool as hell, but this will still be unique and more my style.

I forgot my camera but Kelly took some pics so I'll post them soon. We got the rear end on today and laid the bed on it and it looks cool. I wish I would have painted it by now so I would know how cool it is going to look.

We tried to get the new engine started and we are pretty certain that it is TDC and firing right. It ran for a couple of seconds but not good. It kept spitting gas through the carb and my buddies feel it is an intake valve not closing.

[Boog]

Yeah, I don't blame you on the bed swap. It was unique alright but stock length will look better and ride better. Get out that hotrod flat black before you mount the bed!
This is a fresh built engine right? Well bump the engine over and check all the valves and back off any that feel too tight. It will run if they are too loose but won't run if they are all too tight. Once it starts adjust the timing to best idle and slow it down and readjust the valves and it should be good.
I once got the solid lifters too tight on my sister's 57 chevy. Ran good in the shop but about 4 miles from there it just shut down. Too tight. Lesson learned.

[2bits]

Yeah, this is the first time this engine has been turned over. Talked to the rebuilder and he says the same about checking/resetting the valves too. Gonna try that first. He also said that the engine may not have run long enoughfor the lifters to pump up, it ran for around 10 sec. Going to post a separate post for something related to that too.

[2bits]

Here's a pic with the bed just sitting on the frame. It definitely will be painted to match before it goes on! I still need to paint the frame haha... It is begging for bigger tires now too, that's on the list!

[2bits]

Picked up the new driveshaft this morning. I ordered the adjustable Track bar, and lower Coil spring cups from GMC Paul's today as well. I couldn't find from any of the regular places a Track bar bracket for a leaf spring rear end that doesn't have the mount in the axle housing. I finally located one using a search here that was available from Air Ride. It wasn't in the catalog but I called and they had a billet one that was $100 for the dumb thing and stud... I got the trackbar for $59! It will be here tomorrow and the bar will be here Sat.. I'm taking Friday off to do as much as I can and hopefully get it running too.

[72BlckButy]

That thing has come a long way! Love the last pic above with the sparks-a-flying.

[2bits]

I updated my truck pages, here is the link from last weekend to this weekend.
Friday was a fiasco. Air Ride sent me a bracket for a 12 bolt and I ordered a 10 bolt. They just pulled the year model and ignored everything I said. The track bar never came until Monday. We couldn't get the new engine to run either. Need to readjust the valves and see if that helps

Got the truck trailered back to my house and I let it sit all week. Then I took off the bed, mounted the coil springs, and painted the top of the frame, I'll paint the underside tomorrow, it was too dark by that time. I got half of the bedside bolts out, I will be able to get most of the others off, but a couple I will need a little sawzall action for.

http://www.grossepointegothic.com/71stepside/Oct07/

[Boog]

Hey Thomas. Looking at that track bar bracket. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to use the adjustable track bar from ECE? That one runs across to the right side and bolts to a bracket under the axle housing to trailing arm bolts.

[2bits]

I looked at ECE (I thought) but I thought it bolted to the factory location. I will check their site right now, I would love to do that because I have no solution at this point because I hate that expensive billet piece. I just want to paint it black anyway haha... Thanks again!

[2bits]

Found it Boog! Thanks!

[2bits]

Just updating "The Thread"... pics of the ECE Super trackbar, and I added temporary lights to the frame because I got the new engine started for the first time! ! !

I'll be taking apart the new bed, sanding and painting it and putting it back on soon. Then the Blazer tank conversion is next!