Hello....
Has anyone changed their truck from a long bed to a short bed? I have a long bed and am thinking of making the change. I have talked with someone from work that has done it and I have heard of 4 or 5 others who have done it also. I know that I would have to cut some of the frame out to ensure that the wheel wells matched up with the wheels.

I was hoping that there was an article in the "Tech Articles" about a step-by-step way to get it done right. I haven't done a search in the forums yet.

I like the looks of my truck now. If it were any closer to the ground, I would have already been in search of a donor truck. But because it sits up high (I have 265 tires on it) it looks OK long-wheel base. There are so many other things that I want to do to make it a great daily driver and I don't want to get the cart before the horse (for example, a paint job now and a bed change later would only add more cost and work to paint a new bed).

Anyway, any help from someone more knowledgable about such things would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

the best thing i can think to do would be to find a swb truck with a decent bed on it and work on swapping everything over.

 

I agree. Find a SWB that may help with some of your other desired changes.

with all the truck chassis laying out there, I don't see why somebody would go through the trouble of cutting a frame.

my 2 cents, probably worth about a penny :-)

 

I have seen it done doesnt look to hard. I think you cut like 6 inches out of the frame behind the cab. If you have a short bead or can buy one just mount it mark the space between the cab and bed then cut and weld back togeather. Other than that its like just shortening the drive shaft and maybe brakelines. There just isnt much invoved accept time consuming labor.

 

Make sure you reenforce the frame, either with scab plates on the outside, box it in that area, or both. No matter how good of a weld there is, there is still the possibility of it breaking due to the stress in that area of the frame. I have seen many unmodified frames snap right behind the cab in moderate rear-end collisions, and yours may break just driving down the road loaded.

 

Exactly, anytime you weld you change the properties of the metal so while the weld is stronger than the existing metal the surrounding metal has changed so it may become softer or more brittle. It's nothing to worry about though just weld a little support in and she'll be fine your not pushing 800+ footpounds of tourqe or anything so reinforce and happy motoring.

 

I think the best thing would be buy a junker frame or whole truck from a junk yard and do a restore and swap over the good stuff from the current truck. There are various threads in the 4x4 forum about cutting frames and such.

As long as you can weld well, then there is not much of a problem, though I think cutting a frame in 1/2 is not ideal. If you are welding a frame I would say you need at least a MIG 220v that can do 1/4+ steel. Plus, in some states that is enough to make the truck illegal to drive on the road no matter how well it was done and you might get in trouble just driving it, not counting what would happen if you resold it or got into an accident.

I think the best way is to cut the end of the frame off and move up the spring hangers and cross member supports for the frame. That is the safest way.

 

I agree that it would be best to find a swb junker/donor, but how often do you see them? I've seen way more chebby swb's than Fords. I love the swb for a hotrod platform and if you have the skills, I say go for it.

 

I wish I could have found an swb when I got my 69. As far as I know, older Ford frames aren't anything special, they are just plain mild steel, so no preheat or special procedures are needed. I forgot to mention earlier, bevel the cut ends before you weld them, and use a burr tool to dig out the second side down to bare metal before welding it back up. You want to make sure there is full penetration in the weld, even with reenforcement.

 

If you cut the frame and weld it back togeather and do a good job, smooth the welds out and box it it you could jump it off a cliff and it wouldnt break and If you clean up your welds and make everything look slick like you just reinforced the frame nobody will ever know unless they do research. Besides....Who would wanna live in a state that **** anyways.

 

I did this a week ago, You have to cut 16" out of the frame between the end of cab and front of axle, you also need to cut 3.6" out after the axle. I did not perform the second because of my fuel tank witch sits behind the axle. So I will have a bed that is like 6' and some inches. It was a pretty easy deal as I have a plasma cutter and mig welder at the shop. I will try to get some pics of this. But if you have any more questions email me direct.
Robert
72 F100- undergoing a complete restoration/customizing

 

Last summer I did the long to short. Other than dents, the original box was strong and I felt that I couldn't find one close by that would be comparable. I removed 16 inches from the front only which reasonably centers the wells on the box. I guess acording to hoyle there should be a few inches removed from the back but I like the way it looks now. Not too long, not to stubby and is in good balance with the rest of the truck.I used my engine hoist to raise the box off the truck and gave it a 180 degree and laid some 2X4 between the box and frame and made sure it did not have any twist. After careful consideration I layed out where I wanted to cut. Using cut off wheels on a 4 1/2 angle grinder worked great. The front panel must be freed of all welds and any dents it had I repaired while it was out for easy going. I did no welding but used 10-32 stainless button heads and ny-lock nuts. The top corners were left on the front panel because they have a special form that would take much time to duplicate. The configuration that I left on the front panel was then notched out on the box to mate up. Of course it's bye-bye to the front stake hole. No matter, I filled in the remaining four holes and now have a smoothie. Bending the entire front lip of the box around the front panel is by far the most work. And I believe that my work must be OK as many can't believe that I shortened the box as this front bend is the first thing that anybody seems to scrutinize.
The frame was shortened 16 inches also. There is a nice straight piece there that begs to be removed. The drop out was salvaged and bolted back on the frame to join the frame. Here the drops were slit in two the long way and just enough material was removed to allow the two pieces to be inserted into th e channel of the frame and bolted to suit with 5/16 good grade bolts. By now you hade deduced that I do not have a welder. Welding would have been lots easier. But I believe that the frame is strong as I jacked it up after the box was back on placing the jack right on the joint and took both wheels off the ground with no noticable variance in gap between the box and cab. Then you have to deal with a new driveshaft. All in all I am glad I did the project. The main consideration is shortening the box. The shortening of the frame and the driveshate pale in light of the work required on the box. My next project is to convert the rear window into a three piece window. Making two posts that will have the large radius in all corners will take some doing though. I inserted some dummy cardboard mockups of the posts over the existing window to realize the effect. Shouldn't have done dat cuz now I will not rest until I get that done.
fuzz

 

I like the riveting, Its actually the strongest most reliable way of joining two pieces of metal. I don't think you will ever have a problem with that frame coming apart...lol

 

Also don't cut the frame up and down. The best way is fish mouth but I did mine on a 45^ angle
Robert

 

I was going to chop my frame today. For those of you that don't know I am taking a '67 SWB 2wheel drive and putting that body on a '75 F250 4x4 chasis.

The '75 wheelbase is 133" and the '67 is 115" Should I chop out 18" in the frame directly behind the cab to make my wheelbase 115?