newer bed on my 71

[vondutch]

i have a 71 long bed. and the bed on it is junk. i was wanting to know if i could put any other year bed on it? i seen stepsides with newer beds. they look really good. how about fleetsides??

[c10addict]

I have seen it and it really doesnt look that good... I am from Pittsburgh as well and had seen this ad on craigslist

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/pts/489342065.html

Sounds like a smokin deal if they are nice... Good luck! Keep us posted..

Lets see some more pics of that truck!

[jetboat]

Ive wondered the same thing...My father-in-law has a new (drove home from the dealer and removed it) bed from an 04 that he said I can have. I have been searching but found nothing.

[71MUTT]

Nothing but the originals will fit right on, but if you have a welder and some iron, you can fabricate almost anything.
My personal opinion is, find an original or turn it into a flatbed.

[c10addict]

Honestly its not terrible... From the body line up the shape is very close to the cab.. Below the body line it goes away.. Its funny though with as close as the step sides are and the fleets not being way off if GM had a clue they would be so similar all these years later..

[67ChevyRedneck]

None of them "look good."

Since your truck is a longbed your choices are limited. The 88-98 stepsides were only shortboxes. A 55-66 longbed would look OK on your truck (the fenders look OK with these trucks.) I'm from the north as well and feel your frustration with rusted CRAP. I've seen many different conglomerations of trucks up there. I've seen a 67-72 with a 73-87 fleeside bed... and I've seen them with an 88-98 fleet bed as well, and I've seen them with an assortment of stepside beds, whatever people could find that would fit that wasn't rusted all to hell, but again, no, none of them looked good. None of the trucks I'm referring to were show trucks, just old plow or work trucks.

EDIT: just saw this on the parts board:

Looks to be a good deal. Road trip?


http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=270667

[Longhorn Man]

here is one with a 88 - 98 bed... looks pretty bad IMO.
Notice the wheel openings are not the same shape, the top is wider than the cab, the center is narrower than the cab. There is one line that is similar, but the rest of it, the whole shape, is nowhere near that of the cab.

[c10addict]

Honestly its not terrible... From the body line up the shape is very close to the cab.. Below the body line it goes away

The mind is the first thing to go... Looks like

Call on those bedsides from craigslist !!!

[Mordachai]

the worst thing imho is the different shaped wheelwells. If I'm not mistaken, I've seen someone graft factory openings onto a newer bed.

I guess it depends on how much you can/want to fabricate...

[bad6772]

here is my 72 (old pic ) i did not want to put this bed on but after about a week of it having fresh paint on it...some old dude back in to my original bed..well he ran over it ..and to say the least it wasnt worth even trying to fix....so i baught this bed a the gm dealership i worked at the time for a 100 bucks...so i made it work....i added metal to the body line to try and make it match up better..but??6 years later i found a rust free bed...and baught it...i would say i didnt like the way it looked but i did not have a choice at the time....anyways it worked for a while...the funny thing is non.....67-72 truck guys always wanted to know how hard it was to put those tail lights in there.........lol easy they came that way stock.........

[jetboat]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

None of them "look good."



EDIT: just saw this on the parts board:

Looks to be a good deal. Road trip?


http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=270667

Yeah...roadtrip up and buy it....the genious that had the truck before me cut my frame to make a contractor bed from a newer truck fit. Part of the reason I was thinking of going with a more modern bed myself was A: its free B: its BRAND NEW but, I think im just going to finish cutting the frame back to the leaf mount and flat bed it... Can you say Departure anglel

I have noticed that the "NEW" Chevy/GMC HD line looks allot like the 67-72 truck lines. Makes me wonder if a bed off an 06/07 would fit better than previous years.

[Mordachai]

^I've been wondering the same thing. Looks like the body lines are similar, but it still might be too wide or narrow in places.

Also some of the newer *dodge* GASP beds also have pretty similar lines.

I guess when you need inspiration for new designs you go back to the classics...