My new 71 shorty bed

[2bits]

Yah, it was a bad motor tho. I've always wanted an inline 6 so this was a good opportunity to build it how "I" want it...

[2bits]

This morning was my court date, and I WON the lawsuit against the guy I bought the truck from for smashing my front roll pan! That was a good way to start the day!

After that, I had my A/C charged and there are no leaks and it cools like a demon. There are two issues though. The head pressure in the compressor is too high. Hopefully putting the fan should on will help enough. Since I had such a hard time trying to get it installed last time and ended up skipping it, he suggested cutting the shroud into a top and bottom section and putting it in one section at a time, then strapping it back together, so I will try that tomorrow night.

The other issue with the A/C is that the evaporator unit that is in the cab is pointing too far up the A/C guy says and he says it is going to leak condensation into the blower motor and onto the floor, and I can't have that, so next week I am going to have to have the freon pulled out of it, and make them exchange the unit for the long unit that fits up under the dash better. I like that unit better anyway.

After the A/C stuff I went to my exhaust shop and they welded up my rear leaf spring mounts and it is solid now! That's a load off my mind. I can mark that off my list! so all in all a very productive day for the truck!

[Gray Ghost]

All good progress and the problems sound minimal at this point. Real glad you got the rear leaf mounts welded....that's scary on one bolt!

Congrats on the win!

[2bits]

I read in a thread here that a noisy valve could be a fuel pump and I thought that since my fuel pump was right under the #2 cylinder that is what the tapping could be, but it wasn't. At least now I know that I have replaced everything possible on the Outside of the engine! Anyone got a line on someone pulling an inline 6 to put in a V8? I'm in Texas.

[Gray Ghost]

Good luck Thomas!

[2bits]

Just updating the build thread. I put a new (used) engine in the stepside and it is running great now. I spoke to the A/C guy this morning and my replacement unit is shipping today. Next jobs are to install the front springs, remove the bed to clean up all the squeaks, then remove the gas tank from behind the seat and install a Fuel cell in the bed which I will build a nice box around that will also double as a tool box.

If I can find a decent stepside bed, I would like to get one and just remove the front section, so it bolts up, and lines up to the rear axle the same, but not cut the rear section so it will be a 6 foor bed father than 5 foot. That will save me the bodywork of fixing the rear fenders, plus give me a little more space back there that I will be takign away with the gas tank. I figure I can just weld a 1 foot section of frame back on again haha

[71tahoe]

If you were closer I'd like to save the driver's fender from the scrapyard. I need a patch to delete my spare cut out.

[RicksTrucks]

Originally Posted by 2bits

If I can find a decent stepside bed, I would like to get one and just remove the front section, so it bolts up, and lines up to the rear axle the same, but not cut the rear section so it will be a 6 foor bed father than 5 foot. That will save me the bodywork of fixing the rear fenders, plus give me a little more space back there that I will be takign away with the gas tank. I figure I can just weld a 1 foot section of frame back on again haha

I have a couple up here.

[Brad]

It's your truck so do as you wish, but I must say that I really like your bobtail truck (and normally I wouldn't!) and as you can clearly see with 3 pages of text, many others like it too. I think it's unique in the look and if you change it, it'll look like so many others.

[2bits]

71tahoe if I do the mod, you can have the fender for the price of shipping, and maybe a little for my time to pack it. I'm pretty good at packing parts, I would think it wouldn't be more than $30, but I don't want to get ahead of myself, I'm just kicking this around.

Hey Rick, When you say you have a few, do you mean complete beds? Looks like you're about a 6-7hr drive from Dallas. Not sure I could take that trip yet, but when I was ready I could take my old bed off and just put the new one on the frame good enough to get it home. PM me and let me know how much, once I get some road time and confidence built up in the new engine, I might be up for a road trip. at least I'll be getting 20MPG anyway so that wouldn't be so bad

Brad, I like it too, thank you for the compliment! People ask me what it looks like and I say it looks like a ZZ top Truck or something I think the factory 67-72 stepside's are just a wee bit too long in front of the fender where the step is, so this was perfect for me, and I have always thought about doing a long bed to short bed conversion by moving the axle rather than cutting the frame, I didn't think it could be done well... I don't think mine was done well, but it was done better than half-a$$ed, and I am trying to take up the slack on the rest. I am also being practical too, because once I put the gas tank/tool box in, I'm only gonna have a three foot bed, and I want to have some of that bed left for snuggling under the stars! With a slightly longer bed, it would still be way short, the only change really would be that the rear of the truck would extend back the full length of the step fender, which I guess really isn't a full foot, I think it's more like 4-5 inches. Buying a full bed might be just as much as it would cost a body guy to weld the existing fenders tho so who knows. You said it would look like so many other's, do alot of people do this mod? Removing the front step, and sliding it forward?

I DO have a question though, can someone measure what the full length of a regular stepside fender is? Nothing super precise, but I am interested to see what the difference in length would actually be. Mine is 55" across at about halfway down.

[RicksTrucks]

Originally Posted by 2bits

Hey Rick, When you say you have a few, do you mean complete beds? Looks like you're about a 6-7hr drive from Dallas. Not sure I could take that trip yet, but when I was ready I could take my old bed off and just put the new one on the frame good enough to get it home. PM me and let me know how much, once I get some road time and confidence built up in the new engine, I might be up for a road trip. at least I'll be getting 20MPG anyway so that wouldn't be so bad

I DO have a question though, can someone measure what the full length of a regular stepside fender is? Nothing super precise, but I am interested to see what the difference in length would actually be. Mine is 55" across at about halfway down.

I can get you some measurements tomorrow. Yes, I have at least two stepside beds. I will get you pics and pricing in the next day or two. I can usually make Dallas in under 5 hours and do pass thru there often. I should be coming in the next couple of weeks delivering a truck to Austin.

[Gray Ghost]

I think the factory length of the bed is 6.5 feet. I think that mod with the bed would look cool.

[2bits]

Awesome Rick, yes let me know! Also, let me know their conditions and all that too. Thanks!

[watahyahknow]

lets see if i got this right you going to put the fenders on a longer midsection to get more loadspace right?
the midsection shouldnt be that hard to be made by a metal worker on a bendingmachine its all straight sheetmetal you could put in a nice polished wood floor and youre golden , as for sleeping under the night sky you could make a deck on the bed strong enough to hold youre weight , it would go over the box and gastank youre planning to put in there and it would be a nice (long) and flat surface to put a camping foam bed on , only thing will be you kindah on display when sleeping 3 to 4 foot above the ground

[2bits]

Check out this pic, and you'll see my predicament... I caught this truck mid-way through the customization. They PO actually cut the side fenders to make them shorter as well as cutting the bed itself. I am looking to put regular size fenders on it, and have the bed be exactly as long as the stock fenders. That way it will still have the same look to it, but save me from having to weld these fenders together. The simplest and cheapest way I can think of is to get a stock bed, and cut the front off right where the fenders begin, then bolt up the front plate to the opening and be done with it. The bed and fenders are rust free and mostly dent free, so I could have it welded up this short, but I am afraid it would be big $$$ to get it looking right, and I would like a tiny bit more room back there... Interesting idea about the bed cover. Might do that anyway, but I have a stained wood bed and the box is going to be real nice too so I would want to keep it open to show it off most of the time. Thanks for the input!

[2bits]

Well, I picked up a pretty decent Stepside bed from Tony (TexasSquareBodies) here on the board. He is a heck of a nice guy. I ordered a bed kit for it minus the wood, I am going to make that myself, because it's cheaper, and I like to do it myself, and also because this 73 bed is going on my 71 truck, and the bolt holes probably wouldn't line up anyway.

Here's some pics of it, not bad for $250!

[Rickey]

Hey 2-Bit is that wreaking yard off hwy 80 on the south side. I though I saw a yard there with a few trucks on Sat.

[Gray Ghost]

This yard is on I-20 about 20 miles east of Terrell or so.

Thomas...let me know when you are ready to do the wood, we can use my shop and I already have the patterns.

[Andy4639]

With u-bolts through the frame those leaf springs aren't doing a bit of good weather they are there are not. This picture shows why it so harsh of a ride.
The frame is bolted to the rear end.

[2bits]

Rickey, yeah that's the same one! You take Exit # 512 heading East, and the access road will turn into his street!

Andy, yeah, keep reading the rest of the pages on this thread, other people thought the same thing at first. The photo sure looks like it is bolted to the frame but it's not at all. It was sitting very close to the frame when I first got it in that pic. I have already replaced the rear leaf springs in it a few months ago as you read on too. I am going to replace the front springs too to get it back up to OEM ride height all the way around.

[2bits]

OK, now that I have the new bed, how am I going to put it on? I need to move the rear wheels back. Unfortunately, my truck was originally a longbed so just putting the trailing arms back on and moving the rear end back to it's original location isn't going to work. I could just cut my existing frame short in the middle but all the original suspension is gone, and the back of the frame is cut off, so I figure I also need to get another shortbed frame and do a long bed to shortbed conversion.

My friend at another yard has a shortbed frame he would sell me for $75! Another friend who is an experienced welder said he would be glad to help do the cutting and boxing in for the new frame so it looks like it is on as soon as I can get over and pick up that frame section. I plan on making the new wood bed myself with the help of my woodworker buddy Kelly, so the bed floor will be immaculate too. This is slowly turning into the truck of my dreams!

Here are some pics of the frame donor truck.

[bad6772]

i cant wait to see ya get it all together. do you got any plans for your old frame...it would make a good rock crawler

[Boog]

Thomas. So are ya now going back to a standard short wheel base setup and using a 73 up bed? It won't be a stumpy then...

[Gray Ghost]

I've got big plans for the old shorty bed....it's going to become a trailered smoker! Our club functions will now have a portable smoker with room for wood and other goodies as well!

I'll be doing two wood beds this summer/fall....one in Pine and one in the finest wood on the planet [exact type to be revealed later in another thread]. Looks like the two kits will spawn templates for future bedwood projects, something I have been wanting to do for a long time.

This will be a very cool project to document, between Thomas and I, we'll get a ton of pics for posterity!

[2bits]

Yeah Boog, I really like the 73 beds and the 71 front, so this is the perfect combination for me. It won't be the super short custom version, but it will still be custom with the 73 bed on it. I guess I'll need to change the name of the truck, I call it Shorty now hmm... I am also hoping it will make it less of a cop magnet too, but it is always going to be tough...

I gotta keep my rear Axle but Kelly is going to drop a trailer axle under it which will be a whole lot lighter. I am glad the shorty bed won't just get crushed, but will live on making some of the best BBQ around!