Making a longbed in to a shortbed?

[JTalmage]

Hey folks,

I've got a '72 Chevy pickup long bed, I'd like to make it in to a short bed. Has anyone done this before? Where do I need to place my cuts to the bed/chassis to get the right look?

I want to make a sort of muscle truck out of it, and a long bed just doesnt fit the look I'm going for.

thanks in advance!

[Tom Geiger]

This was a Terry Jessee piece from Scale Auto back in the last century.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Tom Geiger

[my80malibu]

Isn't this backwards Tom?

[Ace-Garageguy]

It's pretty straightforward with a little applied arithmetic. Find a good profile photo of the short-bed look you want on google images. Save it and print it.

You know your model is 1/25, but you'll need to know what scale your print is to be able to figure out where to cut and paste.

That's just a matter of taking a reference measurement from your model and comparing it to the same measurement on your print.

Once you've done a little math to figure out what scale your photo is, it's easy to determine how much to take out and where to cut to get the look you want.

[ScaleDale]

Stacy David did this on Gearz with a 1:1. Here's a link to the video.

https://www.staceydavid.com/episodes/lmc-truck-shortbed-conversion-2822

Dale

[Guest]

On a Chevy, you want to take 9mms out of the front and 9mms out of the rear. Steve Milberry was doing this conversion on a '67 before he left. I'll see if I can find the thread and post a link to it.

[Mark]

Finding a 1:1 brochure for the truck in question isn't a bad idea. Usually, those include dimensions of the short and long bed versions, including bed length, overall length, and wheelbase. Prior to the last couple of generations, most full size pickups were available with 6-1/2' or 8' bed lengths. Mini pickups were usually 5-1/2' or 7', but not always. The difference in overall length (8' to 6-1/2' = 18" in the instances I checked) is how much the bed is shortened overall; the difference in wheelbase (usually 12") is how much of that must be ahead of the rear wheels. That's for full size pickups; the minis seem to vary by manufacturer. The newest pickups all seem to be different, but most of those aren't available as kits anyway.

[Art Anderson]

Finding a 1:1 brochure for the truck in question isn't a bad idea. Usually, those include dimensions of the short and long bed versions, including bed length, overall length, and wheelbase. Prior to the last couple of generations, most full size pickups were available with 6-1/2' or 8' bed lengths. Mini pickups were usually 5-1/2' or 7', but not always. The difference in overall length (8' to 6-1/2' = 18" in the instances I checked) is how much the bed is shortened overall; the difference in wheelbase (usually 12") is how much of that must be ahead of the rear wheels. That's for full size pickups; the minis seem to vary by manufacturer. The newest pickups all seem to be different, but most of those aren't available as kits anyway.

To flesh this out a bit: Beginning in 1938, on a "request" from the Administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the basic dimensions of American built trucks in general became more or less standardized, for the stated purpose of making it more possible for aftermarket truck body producers to standardize the dimensions of the various truck bodies they were building--a way to "stimulate" the profitable production of these items.

As a result, the basic lengths of pickup truck boxes, certainly from the major producers (Ford, GMC, Chevrolet, IH, Dodge and Studebaker) became available in two standard lengths: 6.5' (78") and 8' (96"), with the difference between these bing 12" forward of the rear axle centerline, 6" behind. Even frame widths became much more standardized, and passenger car frames phased out of pickup truck production within just a few short years afterward.

This standardization lasted until at least the early 1970's.

Art

[Longbox55]

To add to that; Most companies offered 3 bed lengths, with the heavier load capacity trucks having longer beds. 1/2 tons used the shortest beds, 3/4 tons in the middle, 1 tons had the longest. There wear also a few 1 1/2 tons that have an even longer bed that the 1 tons. With GM, the sizes were 6 1/2' (1/2 ton), 7 1/2' (3/4 ton and GMC 1/2 ton to early '57, 1/2 long bed Chevrolet '55-early '57), 8' (1/2 and 3/4 ton mid '57 and later), 8 1/2' (/34 ton and 1 ton Fleetside/Wideside '68-'72), and 9' (1 ton Stepside/Fenderside to '72). GM did also offer a 10' "Express" model on the 1 1/2 ton chassis in the mid '30s. It should be noted, during some of the years in the late '30s/early '40s, the GMC 1/2 tons had a longer bed that the Chevrolet, usually a 7'. I would have to check to makes of what years had the longer beds.

On the topic at hand, something to watch for on shortening the '72 bed is the character line on the bedsides. It does have a taper to it, the character line drops a bit as it gets to the rear of the bed.