Hi Guys, I have a style side short bed with rusted out fender wells and the tail lights have damage so I was thinking of replacing the whole bed sides but only see long bed ones. Has anyone used aftermarket ones and have you cut long beds down to short beds.

 

I have no idea but it seems like a plan? Have you looked here for SB bed sides?

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Or here? http://www.vintagepickuptruck.com/Ford.htm

 

As far as I know, no one makes the short bed bed sides. However, unlike Chevy that has different dimensions both before and after the wheel well, Ford just took all of the length out ahead of the wheel well.
Shortening long bed bed sides has been done many times. The only extra thing you have to do is fill in the middle stake pocket.

 

I've been searching for a bed for my truck for a while now. I could have sworn I saw NOS short box sides on Ebay the other day. They were expensive at 700$+. I just did a couple searches a couple of minutes ago and came up with nothing. I did see a bed newly listed out of Vegas, a little out of my price range at 1000$+ shipping. Are the fender wells the only parts that are rusted?

EDIT: Southern Truck sells short boxes that they made up with used bed floors, front panel and inners with new aftermarket sides. So new short style sides must be available somewhere.

 

Thanks Guys! I did think about holes on the top of the bed. And I did see the $700 plus ones and Southern truck but wow they are proud of those. The rust is just in the wheel well so I might just replace that and fix the damage. I also looked those site and only saw long bed sides.

 

Yeah, 3,300$ for a bed. From what I understand, most of these trucks (unrestored) go for less than that! Unless they have been very well taken care of.

 

Exactly...

 

If the rust is just over the wheel wells you could get regular bed patch panels and graft them in.

 

If you can find a set of front fenders that arent rusted in the same area you should be able to use that for a patch panel.