Long bed floor cut down for a short bed?

[evan]

I have a shortbox project truck with a rusty bed floor and the opportunity to buy a wrecked long box truck that has the bed floor in good shape. I can get patch panels for the short box fenders easily but finding a replacement floor anywhere near me is difficult and I'm not really excited about trying to tie in those little bed floor patch panels.

Has anyone chopped the bed floor from a longbox down to use with shortbox bed sides? How did it go? Do you have any tips? If you've seen someone else do it on the interwebs can you post a link?

[HAULIN' IT]

That would not go well...not saying: "It can't be done" however there will be some issues for sure. The crossmembers are not in the same locations due to the bed bolt spacing. The bump for the fuel necks would not be in the same location either. It would not as simple as cutting 12" off the front & 8" off the back like when you shorten the frame.
You would need to do some "funny stuff" with new bolt holes, sleeves where the crossmember normally goes, move the fuel neck bumps, ect. ect. or you would end up having 4 seams across the bedfloor to make it work. Lorne

[trixter99]

The holy guacamole thread in the builds section has a cut down long box in it.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by HAULIN' IT

That would not go well...not saying: "It can't be done" however there will be some issues for sure. The crossmembers are not in the same locations due to the bed bolt spacing. The bump for the fuel necks would not be in the same location either. It would not as simple as cutting 12" off the front & 8" off the back like when you shorten the frame.
You would need to do some "funny stuff" with new bolt holes, sleeves where the crossmember normally goes, move the fuel neck bumps, ect. ect. or you would end up having 4 seams across the bedfloor to make it work. Lorne

The best (proper?) way to make a LWB floor into a SWB floor is to cut between the specific LWB/SWB bed floor reinforcement channels. This requires cutting & welding each end back together (which removes the extra channels) vs just chopping off the excess floor material @ each end (2 seams not 4). If done this way, there is more cutting/welding/fab work but the support members, fuel neck bumps, & fastener locations all remain correct for a SWB chassis.

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

The best (proper?) way to make a LWB floor into a SWB floor is to cut between the specific LWB/SWB bed floor reinforcement channels. This requires cutting & welding each end back together (which removes the extra channels) vs just chopping off the excess floor material @ each end (2 seams not 4). If done this way, there is more cutting/welding/fab work but the support members, fuel neck bumps, & fastener locations all remain correct for a SWB chassis.

I agree with Scoti. I am in the middle of cutting down my long bed truck to a short bed and am cutting the bed as well as the frame. Is it the ideal way to do it? absolutely not. It is much easier to just use a 6' bed. Good 6' beds can be real hard to find in my neck of the woods too and I am not wealthy enough to order a brand new floor from LMC. A little careful measuring and cutting and then some welding and grinding is all it takes.

[UKNOWME]

Originally Posted by trixter99

The holy guacamole thread in the builds section has a cut down long box in it.

Do you have a link to that thread? I couldn't find it using the search function.

[65standard]

I did that to my 1970 C/20. May or may not be the same process as your '73-87.
The floor cut down starts at post #10

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=667694

[evan]

Originally Posted by trixter99

The holy guacamole thread in the builds section has a cut down long box in it.

He used a stock shortbox floor. He said he plans to do more of them but I don't know if he plans to cut down longbox floors or not.