Second Time Around - '60 Chevy Longbed

[Casey]

With apologies to Shalomar, this is the second time I've purchased two AMT '60 Chevy Fleetside kits to make a longbed, and this time I put the razor saw to styrene and did some actual cutting. The way the bed sides are molded with and attached to the bed floor and sidewalls makes the bed sides very easy to cut free, so that was step one. Step two involved getting the forward edges of all four bed side pieces flat and true to their mirror image piece, so they could be permanently bonded with liquid cement. Here's a pic of that step after completion:

I then added twelve scale inches to the forward section of the bed, but tapered the bed walls too much on both sides, so I'll add a wedge of .040" styrene to fill those two gaps:

After the bedsides were cured, I measured the correct length for the forward section, then cut off the excess. Again I trued, bonded, then trimmed the rear half of the bedsides, leaving them looking like this:

The bedside crease needs to be evened and defined a bit more, but the profile is pretty consistent along the length of the bed, so a tip of the hat to AMT's designers for giving me a very nice starting point.

[mikemodeler]

Looking good! Are you doing this for yourself or looking to get it cast?

[gray07]

looking good, I hear alot of people talking about a razor saw, what is it and where u get them from.

[jeffs396]

Looking good! Are you doing this for yourself or looking to get it cast?

X2!

[Casey]

looking good, I hear alot of people talking about a razor saw, what is it and where u get them from.

They look like this, Darrin, and come in different blade heights, as well as fine to coarse tooth counts. I usually but the two-pack at Michael's when mine get dull, but they are less than $10 for the two-pack and handle, as shown below:

I filled in the two bed sidewall gaps with .040" thick styrene wedges, then sanded the insides and outsides of the sidewalls as flat as possible. After applying a bit of filler in a few spots I sanded the bedsides to a consistent profile until I was satisfied. I found some '60-'66 Chevy pickup diagrams online and noticed the longbeds used three stake pockets while the shortbeds used only two per side, so filled in the old stake pockets and added new pockets to the bed rails where necessary.

Next I added some L-shped/right angle styrene strips to the bottom of the bed rail area, but I have not yet trimmed them to the correct length. I wanted to add a very positive mating surface between the bedsides and top edge of the bed, and since I removed material when cutting the bedsides free from the bed, I needed to add it back at some point anyway. I plan to add a filler piece at the front edge of both bedsides, too, as a little more bracing/stability at the front of the bed would be a good thing. I'm still debating adding an outer wheel well, as that would provide even more stability and strength, but I have found no detail pics of that area online yet.

Here are the pics of the progress:

In the image below you can see how the two L-shaped pieces fit together, providing a long bonding surface as well as (hopefully) keeping the edges aligned:

This pic shows where the old stake pockets were filled in and how the bedsides meet the bed's sidewalls:

[Platerpants]

sweet

[Edsel-Dan]

I like this, and may copy you (Partway) But, You are Not making a Correct

Fleetside by keeping the STEPSIDE inner box sides!!!

By tooling this Pickup as they did One-piece box/bed), AMT/Ertl made a PHANTOM Cameo..

With the 58 Model year, Chevrolet/GM dropped the Stepside based Cameo and widened the

Bed floor calling the Pickup FLEETSIDE. The outside Fender type box sides were Identical to

the CAMEO, but were Now Steel Not Fiberglass as in the CAMEO Carrier

The Outer wall of the Bed was the Inside surface of the "Fender"

To be accurate, you should add a plank to Both outside edges of the floor (And of course

Widen the wheel wells)!!

Look at this Pic from the "Free Laser Cut Wood Bed" post;

http://newoldcar.com/images/Featured_Cars/Chevrolet/C10/301_1966_Chevrolet_C10_Pickup/1966%20chevrolet%20c10%20pickup%20bed.jpg

There is NO Straight Vertical bed side there!!

Yes, I know, That vertical side Does make reattaching the Fender side Easier, But, the box looks VERY Wrong!!!!

By the way, REVELL made the Same Mistake on their 64 "Fleetside" Phantom Cameo!!!!!

Taking the CHEAP way out and making a FAKE replica!!

I can post pic's of what I have done to both my AMT 60 & Rev 64 to correct those MAJOR mistakes

if interested.

(I already have in other threads)

[Tom Geiger]

Very interesting and it doesn't look all that hard to create. I especially like the way the stake pockets are visible in the bed. I have one that I built but didn't know this issue with the kit, but I'll be looking to fix the next one.

Casey- look at the bright side of buying multiple copies. Now you have a supply of that great Chevy six!

[Casey]

I like this, and may copy you (Partway) But, You are Not making a Correct

I did a lot of research and collected many reference pics prior to starting this project, so while you are correct, I am comfortable with it. I wanted to re-use the kit's rear bed caps, tailgate, and tail lights, so that factored into my decision. I also considered how the wear strips are shaped and positioned on the real bed, and knew I didn't want to try replicating the strips:

I'd love to see someone go all out and make a 100% factory correct bed, but it just wasn't something I wanted to do this time.

Now you have a supply of that great Chevy six!

The straight six in these kits is fabulous, no question.

[kilrathy10]

That looks really good....Very nice and precise....

[slusher]

Nice work on the truck bed Casey..

[impcon]

I did a lot of research and collected many reference pics prior to starting this project, so while you are correct, I am comfortable with it. I wanted to re-use the kit's rear bed caps, tailgate, and tail lights, so that factored into my decision. I also considered how the wear strips are shaped and positioned on the real bed, and knew I didn't want to try replicating the strips:

I'd love to see someone go all out and make a 100% factory correct bed, but it just wasn't something I wanted to do this time.

The straight six in these kits is fabulous, no question.

Good point about the unavailability of a proper fleetside long box conversion, Casey. I too have oondered why Modelhaus or another quality resin caster has never offered a long wide bed box conversion of what really are nice kits if you want toinclude the Revel step side trucks. Lenthening the frame on this is not difficult, but creating a proper and correct box is a challenge for many inexperienced builders or guy who just do not wish to tackle such a job. I managed to buy a curious combination built up off Ebay that is at least part promo of a '64 - 66 long bed fleetside Chevy. the cab has had some things done to it - not sure why because it has the stock look, but I am not changing a thing on it. I can send you some photos if you want but I will have to retake them as my computer had a major happening and I seem to have lost everything on theh ard drive - almost 500 gigs worth of pictures, music and documents. It may take me a day or two to get some photos but I will do it for you if you wish.