my radical 60 build

[TJ's Chevy]

Awesome! Looks one of a kind!

[jonzcustomshop]

I had to tear the whole box apart and re-do it... the front bed panel that I used had a bow in it, so I replaced it with a straight one, and the whole left bedside had to be redone.....it had a bow in it that was hard to see when looking, but if you put a straight edge on it, it curved inward from the wheel well to the cab by about a half inch.

so all the blue is new... it is much better now.

now I can get started on welding up the new panels for the inside.

[Ta2Don]

Gotta Love The Big Sky air... as I said before...
Over The Top

[jonzcustomshop]

starting on the bed floor....
used some cross sills that came with the 61 bed, put 1/8 inch steel plate (I think that is the size, it's thick) for the floor, the thought there is it won't get bent up if I throw stuff in the bed.
the center had to be thinner, maybe 16-18 guage? , so they could bend it, so I braced it up with some angle iron.

[jonzcustomshop]

got the wheel tubs figured out.
I used some tubs out of a 65.
I then used part of a 61 tub to lengthen the front around 3 inches, and then shortened the back by about 2 inches.
I also cut about 1.5 inches off the side to get them in closer to where the tire sits.

[jonzcustomshop]

now I have the rear cross sills welded in, also some shots of the re-route of the gas filler, it will have a door on the inside of the bed.

[jonzcustomshop]

I had to make a couple brackets for the bed side supports:

[ChiefRocka]

Awesome man .... didn't even know you were back on this ....


NICE WORK !

[E911manager]

Looks good!!!

[jonzcustomshop]

We filled in the gas door on one of our 55 chevys.
So I used the leftover piece on here:

[Strodder]

Looks great. I was thinking of doin the same thing.

[jonzcustomshop]

today was 1 step back, and a few forward.....
the top of the right side bed was all bent up. The illusion that it was ok, was that the front and back were the same level, but it dropped quite a bit in the center. after I got it off and sighted down it, it looks like a bad 2x4, all bowed and twisted.
luckily I have quite a few pieces of junk beds laying around2 of the others I tried were all bent up too, but this black one was pretty good.
I clamped it to the white one, and you can see the bow, then checked it to the blue side, and saw that it was straight....
once I got it cut and put on , it solved a bunch of problems that I was dealing with to get the inner bed to fit.

[jonzcustomshop]

I put a patch on the front stake pocket, it had been rolled, or had a stake ripped out of it.

...and since I fixed the passenger side bed rail, the inner structure just about fell together.

[jonzcustomshop]

a few more shots of the bed coming together.

[jonzcustomshop]

todays project was to figure out what to do with the top of the back of the bed....
earlier on I had always planned on using a bedside and wrapping it around the back.

2 problems: making the corner flow the way I wanted was not panning out, and I used my last good non twisted bedside to repair the passenger side yesterday...

I thought about using parts of a 61 gmc hood that I have, but the problem with using stuff from the front on the rear is that we are used to seeing certain parts in certain spots; so when you put a hood or front bumper on the back it just looks like the truck is parked backwards.

after looking and trying whatever I had laying around, and then just staring at it for a while, the simple solution arrived: just use the upper part of the tailgate and the stock bed corners.

so I went out and picked out the best worst (if that makes sense) tailgate I had, and cut the top off of it.
I leaned it out at a sharp angle, and think it turned out just right.

[jdoisher]

Wow

[Ta2Don]

X2

[doobiebro]

Awsome work...Keep it up!

[jonzcustomshop]

got the left corner figured out and tacked together:
the bed corners were something that I was struggling with mentally ever since I cut the bed down, but they just kind of fell together , and I like the way it is coming out.

[Strodder]

It's going to look great. You always build out of the box. No "Cookie Cutters" here.

[jonzcustomshop]

got a little work done on the passenger fender....
these 61 Plymouth pieces are worse for rust than 60-66 trucks I think!
I got a different (non rusty) fender to replace the rusty one I started with.... problem is, is that after I buzzed all the bondo out of it, it was just about as bad as the one I started with....
the black pieces are the "new" piece , and the white are the original.
I replaced the whole headlight area, but then had to utilize part of the white fender on that, and I still have some patches to put in on that piece.
That should all fix itself when I french the headlights....
I cut up another big truck fender to get the body curve, and now all I have to do is remember how I did the drivers side a year ago!
last shot shows all the puzzle pieces.... maybe soon I will finally have the fender fabrication behind me!

[Ornery37]

I am so glad to see you back at it, looking very nice!

[creep]

You're either a genius or crazy. I'm guessing a little bit of both. Great work!

[rusty76]

Any updates on this bad boy? I hoping for some........

[jonzcustomshop]

no. right now it is sitting, I did a lot of rust repair to the passenger fender, and got the whole thing ready to weld up, but I was running into some fitment issues as compared to the driver side, and got a little frustrated with it....
I decided to take a break from it for a bit and get the other car in the shop done (my convertible), so that I could have the space to work on one vehicle at a time.
......and then I ended up with that 61 crewcab.....so this is double back burnered for now!, hopefully by the time I get back to it there will be more room to work and it will go along quickly...