[mrhino]

[SIZE="4"]After putting the front fenders on for mock up, it was time to do something with that long bed.



after looking at others postes, who had cut the beds, and seeings how I had never welding before, I probably shouldn't cut up a rust free bed. so started looking for a short bed to trade or piece together. fond a guy on the fourm here that wanted to trade but, he was in southern Tenn. and we could never get together on a time to hook up. I finally met a local kid maybe 17 (who's is into 67-72 chevys) he said he can get bed panels cheep. so I gave him a shot. to make a long story short, he did get me 2 new short bed bedsides cheaper than I could find anywhere, With that I decided it would be easier and cheaper to cut the floor I had.



after flipping the bed over and carefully measuring where the floor should be cut.
I took the bedsides off and marked it. Armed with a airsaw, reciprocating saw, pneumatic cutoff wheel and my grinder with a cutoff wheel,flapper disc, eyeprotection and earmuffs I cut 12" out of the rear and 8" out of the front for a total of 20".











I grinded the edges smooth and put the pieces back together again with but weld clamps



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Bolted the bedsides back on and spot welded it back together.





Here you can see my daughter helping her daddy. After grinding the welds, I shot a little rattle can primer on them. I plan on using a spray in bedliner on the floor to help hide the welds as well as some of the dings and dents of a old bed.



because of the careful measuring I had done, bedsides bolted right on when, and when I sat the bed down onto the frame, the original bolt holes lined up and the bed mounted perfectly.