[jmarkha1]

Chassis Shortening

There are many threads on how to cut down a short bed luckily so I had almost done the job in my head before I had started.

However - I did not have either a clear garage space or a decent welder so happily let the professionals do this part of the project for me.

I used Valley Gas Speedshop in Andover UK - they were fantastic - they filled my specific (pedantic) requirements and also recommended some improvements.

The truck was delivered to them with cab and bed mounted so they had both the chassis and also the bed sides to cut.

The chassis was cut 20” using a large step joint with rounded corners and also a box behind which provides a lot of additional strength.

To provide some additional rigidity they added large gussets along the rails and crossmember.

To allow for a frame height exhaust 2 large tubes were welded into the crossmember also so I could tuck the tubing up into the frame.

The rear of the rails were also trimmed slightly to allow the fitment of a mid 60s mustang 16 gal tank and the addition of a removable rear crossmember to add some protection for the bed mounted tank.

The rear cab mounts were moved back 12” and all unnecessary tabs were removed to clean things up.

Finally a set of HD C notch panels were added to allow the truck to be lowered at the rear and not risk contacting the frame on the axle.

The chassis would then be ready for media blast followed by 2k epoxy and a tough chassis paint.

final picture is one of my hens using the chassis to perch on - its useful to someone at least...