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After looking hi and low for a short wide bed for the 68 I am building and only finding ones that needed way too much work, or were way out of my budget, I decided to cut a long one down. Here are a couple of pics. Tell me what you think of my first attempt. Now its time to work out the damage in the lower right corner.

Man is it fun cutting em up!!

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Hey that looks great Mark. I need to stop by and check it out.

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Awesome work, so exactly how much did you cut out in front of the wheels, and behind the wheels?

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Looks good man. I am going to have to find me some LWB beds and start cutting them all up. What were your measurements by the way?

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The front was cut 12 inches.. and the back 8 inches. it even uses the factory mounting holes.. I couldn't believe how straight forward it all was. the front lined up perfectly.. the rear took some pushing and shoving.. I ended up cutting the rear portion down to just below the body line then angled the cut toward the wheel well to make the differences line up easier

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I'm getting set to do this, and those are the most awesome pics I could have to show what to do and where to do it, I swiped 'em to my computer.

What did you use to do the cutting?

you do really good work:metal:

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Thank you for the compliments,
95% of the cutting was done with a cut off blade in a skill saw the rest was with an angle die grinder and also a straight die grinder

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Sweet, that makes me want to go cut mine down right now...in the rain...in the dark...

OK maybe I'll wait till this weekend:rolleyes:

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Mark that looks great!!! What a fine job you did. You'll never be able to tell. But we all will know, HA,HA............

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SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET...u da man!

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good job dude, always love when its bare metal, just looks friggin awesome

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Looks like you've done a great job!

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That is some SWEET @SS work!!! Welll Done. I bow down to you almighty sheet metal god!!!

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I don't think I would have the gutt's to try that! Great job.

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Looks good - got any pictures of the area that you welded after you ground it all down - the outside of the bed?

Skill Saw :confused: - got any pictures of that, seems dangerous:metal:

oh and what type of electric Cut-Off grinder is that? - do you like it compared to an air cut-off?

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Thanks for all the compliments guys!!

arkracing...
I do have a couple more pics of the outside after grinding.. it does look better from distance .. go easy on me as I am not an expert on sheet metal welding.. MORE PRACTICE MORE PRACTICE MORE PRACTICE..

Sorry no pics of the skill saw.. never dawned on me to take any , Its just a normal 7.5 inch saw with a cutoff blade make for skill saws..

The electric die grinder is a Hitachi.. Yes I do like it much better than an air one.. not much slows it down unlike the air grinders, the downside is it can not get into tight places.

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great job looks fantastic pics were a plus thanks this will help a lot.

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Nice job, when I welded aluminum fuel takers we used skil saws and regular tooth blades for cutting out our welds, they had to be continious welds so you got real good real fast its tough holding one of those over your head very long. lol great job.

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Awesome execution.I like the jog at the bottom to bring the taper more together.It looks like minimum plastic is required.Your welding looks good to me.I`ve had bodymen scared to weld mid-panel ever since I`ve been working on stiff.

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Looks like good welding to me. It's very tough to get MIG welds "metal Finished" - i.e. look like they were never there.

on the Skill Saw - is it a "Grinding Wheel" type blade - one of these things:
http://www.metaldevil.com/index.html
Videos here :eek:
http://www.metaldevil.com/seeing.html

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I was discussing cutting down a bed with the guy that builds burbs into shortie Tahoes and he suggested the Jog to make the taper easier. and it was. My first "mid panel" weld was scary to me (twenty years ago) my very first attempt was using a suburban roof on an extended cab I built.. I used the front 2ft and the rear 2ft of a burb roof and welded them together in the middle.. it was a real challenge. On the box shortening project I figured the worse I could do is end up with a bondo bucket trailer and have to go find another $100 parts truck for another bed and start over..

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Thank you for the compliment.. I have never been happy with my sheet metal mig welds, I want the "metal finished" look.. I guess its time for a Tig and learn how to use it.

The cut off blade is a normal style abrasive cut off.. similiar to these.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...5691_200335691

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Nice looking project LivRat. I never understood why GM didn't build an extended cab; I'm sorry but to my the crew cabs were fugly.
Howard

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Nice metalwork Livrat. It gives those of us in search of short beds a little to think about. Thanks, .....Jerry

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Where do you buy "the metal devil blade"? looks worth trying
p.s. where did they move "the unfinished nationals" ?
always a good show !

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I thought about it - looks scary, but I guess it works:cool:
$50 @ NorthernTool

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...atchallpartial

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Hello....in reference to making a LWB to SWB bed.... what were the measurements from the front? I got the ones in back 81.5/89.5 Can you help out?

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Do you have info from the front? I just need that so I can measure from the front

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Mark, that bed looks great! When can you do my 71? Ha, J/K, its gonna get the cab extension like on your other project.

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Hey Mark, can you give us the measurements and starting points for them. I wanna start on mine this weekend. Thanks.

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I was looking at this on my truck last night. For the front, it really doesn't matter too much exactly where you start. You just need to remove 12" and make sure you remove one of the crossmembers. (mine has a non-existant wood floor, so I can see the crossmembers)

From memory, starting about 3" behind the front stake pocket would work. Double check though.

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All the information you'll need is here:

http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=321099

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this is probably a stupid question but is there anything you have to do differently when cutting a bed with a wood floor as opposed to the steel floors. All the conversions i have seen have been done with the metal floor.

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I started cutting mine last night. Remove all the wood and strips first. In my case the wood is all rotted out and the metal strips are pretty much rusted gone. It makes it a little easier cause you can see the back side of the lower fenders a little better.

I just ran one 1x1 across the top of the main portion of the bed and the tailgate portion. Seemed to work out good.

When I removed the rear 8" section, it all came out as one piece since that crossmember wasn't bolted down any more.

Good luck!

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thank you!

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This is some good info. I am going to cut down my 72 LWB starting in June. Wish me luck.

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Good luck...Make sure you post lots of pictures of the process. Unless you chop off a finger, I dont want to see that :lol:

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;)