Hello,
I am currently looking at a very, very nice '71 F-100 shortbox. 390, auto, a/c and no p/s. The body and interior is in excellent shape. Even the floor pans and cab mounts are good. Asking price is $1000. The problem is, the bed floor and front panel is rusted out. No bondo in the sides or anything. They've patched with fiberglass, but I don't know how long it'll last. I have seen before at a car show, an older truck with a newer bed interior in it. Has anyone out there done this conversion that could tell me how much trouble it is. You know, the '80's and '90's beds don't rust out like the old ones did. Treated better from the factory. Just wondered if anyone could help me on this. Thanks, and keep on truckin'.....

 

From having had both body styles, I think you would be able to get the replacement sides for the 67-72 beds, and use those to replace the sides of a newer bed. It would take some creative work, and you would have to use the rear posts off the old style bed, but I can't see why you couldn't do it.

 

Why not just swap a newer style bed on it? That would be a custom work. Ive seen it before, not on the 67-72 though. Just an idea

 

Reminds me of an old widow that lived near my brother's farm. She had a blue 67 F250 that was as stout as they come. She bought one of the then new 1980 style F250.

The first time she mounted her cattle racks and hauled a bull he kicked the box to pieces - even separated one side at the front and kicked the tailgate into the next county. (Much thinner metal and less braces on the new box?)

The dealer refused to help her out - she thought he ought to rebuild her box and add extra braces. She then had someone mount the battered blue bed from her 67 onto her new brown Ford - and piled her junk brown box next to the highway with a sign about Ford quality.

She drove the brown truck with the blue box for years and would jump at any chance to explain why it was like that.

 

Willie, I guess she wasn't bullish on the brown box, huh?

FT, Get your measuring tape out. I was surprized at how close the floor plate measurements are inside of the bed between our years & late 80s. The transformation can be done but it will consume a lot of time to do it.

my 2

John

 

I just finished my 71 SWB Sport Custom. My truck originally had rotted out in the front corners of the bed, the front panel, the front parts of the side panels, and the front of the wheel wells. I found a 72 LWB Bed that was in pretty good shape and used it to repair my original. That was a job I'm not sure I would do again. It is a lot of work.
After studying the bed floor I decided I wanted to have the mounting holes from the long bed floor line up in the proper place for the short bed. After doing a few measurements I discovered I could cut the long floor at the front and at the back and then make one cut off the original short floor leaving the last 4 in or so as the floor tapers down to meet the tail gate opening. I replaced the 4 corner pieces with new sheet metal I cut and bent using a press brake. The wheel wells were used from the the long bed. There are LOTS of spot welds to drill out and weld back in. As for the front and side panels. I cut patch panels from the long bed and welded them back in.
Lots of grinding to get the floor smooth where I spliced the original back piece to the cut down long floor. Used seam sealer where all the pieces went together. Then had a speedliner sprayed in side. It turned out better than I expected but I have a lot of hours in it.
There are pictures in my gallery.
Hope this helps.

 

I once had a 71 Custom that had bad rust on the box floor, it was gone. Couldn`t find a good box in a hurry and sold the truck. Bad mistake as it was a very good truck, have found decent truck boxes since. I wish that I had kept that truck untill I found a rust free boxe. Now I have a 69 F100 Custom that has a great rust free body but the other one was some how even sweeter and ran much better. Guess that it is easier to redo the motor than the body.