bed floor

[71badblue]

i have a 71 shortbed. the steel bed floor is rusted thru. lmc and places like that want a grand or more for a new bed floor. the 73-87 bed floors i can get for half as much. i see people always putting whole beds from diff. generations on. would a steel bed floor from a 73-87 work on my 71?

[hugger6933]

If I am not mistaken [I am not a builder of that body stlye truck, I've done several and 88-98 I've built hundreds of those as well as the 99-07's] But I think the flange that the bedside bolts to on the 73-87 is 90 degrees to the floor and on the 67-72 it is level [or on the same plane as] so that would make the bolting the bedside difficult if all else were equal. Also I think there is a slight change in the shape of the floor in front of the wheel "humps".