It's official, flatbed 59 coming

[FFredo]

I just thought I'd toss this out there for no other reason than my wife does not understand my sickness. Maybe I'll get a little moral suport here.
I've decided to turn my 59 3200 Apache Fleetside into a flatbed. I'm going to stick with my #1 rule when building bikes. "Function Over Fashion" I use my truck mostly in the following order for;
a) Home improvement store runs
b) Helping friends move a bike
c) Chase truck on motorcycle runs
d) Semi daily driver
e) Looking cool/good
After looking at all of the options, I feel most comfortable spending my budget on suspension, steering, wheels and tires, fabrication of the flatbed and finally cosmetics.
As a bonus I do like being a bit different than the average truck, bike, car builder. Of course I plan to make it look presentable and not some hacked up shade tree fab job.
Feel free to beat me about the head and shoulders with yuor thoughts.

[mknittle]

I have seen some cool ones over the years. but I think the best looking ones have dual rear wheels and that adapters on the front for bud type wheels. just my 2 cents.

[Denee007]

Wow, sounds neat~!, when do we get to see it???

[BlueJeep]

If you're hauling a lot of motorcycles, I'd want the bed floor as low as you can get it to make loading and unloading easier. Maybe to be different, you should swap in an engine cradle and front suspension from say a Pontiac supercharged 3800, or maybe a GXP 5.3 and make it front wheel drive. Then, for the rear use a trailer drop axle so that you can drop the truck way down and not have to raise the bed floor. Then you could drop the tailgate to the ground for a ramp and drive right into the bed.

Seems like a traditional flatbed would be higher than a bed floor because it would have to clear the rear tires, so it would be harder to load a motorcycle.

[FFredo]

mknittle, yeah I do like the dual wheels on the rear bu I'm thinking a n ice fat 16X10 or so. I want to stick close to the stock 6 lug set up also.

Denee, dont hold your breath I'm kind of slow. I'll be ok if I have it finished by the time our So Cal winter gets here. Around late Nov.

Bluejeep: I'm with you on keeping it low as possible. I dont think I want to do any major sugery though. I have to keep the budget in the poverty level. Here is a drawing I found doing a google search. This will definately help keep it low, although I wont go this low I will be doing some form of suspension drop/upgrade. Notice the wheel weels are in the floor of the flat bed. I like the style and it looks very functional for my needs.

[meter swinger]

Gawddang id give my left lugnut fer onna them there. No really if convert my squarebody DRW longbed to short single i know what to do with that 14bolt the same thing has crossed my mind quite a bit i think u need to do it. Seen it done on quite a few COE''s but not a regular cab. I have a hotwheels car like the rendering but with a stretched bed. Now that would be righteous with a chopper or bobber in the bed. I saw a flat bed on a F@?D that had rounded corners big wheel wells and sat nice n low on the chassis like a wrecker. Wish i had got a picture. DO IT the missus will still think you nutzo either way.
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[Daze57]

great rendering pict.

[CowboyProtectionUnit]

Originally Posted by FFredo

\

Who Did the Artwork.... Could ya hook a Guy up with a Name/email addy... I've Gottan Idear I want Visualized

[RockTonka]

I think that's a damn fine idea

[Dan in Pasadena]

Fredo,
The drawing is excellent. I'm glad you like the idea of the bed low enough that the wheel wells are tucked up in the bed as the picture shows. When you mentioned the flat bed to me the other day I hoped that was the look you'd use. I didn't want to say anything til I saw the picture! That orange looks pretty nice too.
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[mknittle]

Originally Posted by FFredo

mknittle, yeah I do like the dual wheels on the rear bu I'm thinking a n ice fat 16X10 or so. I want to stick close to the stock 6 lug set up also.

Denee, dont hold your breath I'm kind of slow. I'll be ok if I have it finished by the time our So Cal winter gets here. Around late Nov.

Bluejeep: I'm with you on keeping it low as possible. I dont think I want to do any major sugery though. I have to keep the budget in the poverty level. Here is a drawing I found doing a google search. This will definately help keep it low, although I wont go this low I will be doing some form of suspension drop/upgrade. Notice the wheel weels are in the floor of the flat bed. I like the style and it looks very functional for my needs.

That looks cool i saw a pro street model A that had a similar bed.

[FFredo]

I just got off the phone with a local mmetal supply house. It looks like my total investment for materials (wood for the bed too) will be around 300 bucks. Sounds good to me. This may happen a lot sooner than I hoped for.

[Daze57]

you gonna bag that chassis to make it sit that low? if you do ? that would be really nice - the rendering is very slick - would love to see it really materialize

[Dan in Pasadena]

Fredo, What size square tube or channel will you use around the perimeter? Glad to read you are planning a wood bed floor. A lot of guys use diamond plate and while I'm sure that's more durable it just have the right era-correct "feel" in my opinion.
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[FFredo]

Daze, not sure bagging is in the budget. I'm guessing it's not. I will try to get it usable and as low as possible with my limited resources. I know I can build my own 4 link set up for the rear and I'm keeping my eyes open for coil overs. Still not sure how I'll address the front though. No way to fit a after market IFS into the budget, and I want to keep the 6 lug set up. So clipping the front doesn't work unless I can find 6 lug doner.
Any ideas ya'll? Let's hear them.

[Daze57]

you might be able to find a air bag system on c list or ebay -that wont cost a good amount of $ just for the front - i know thats easy to say but ya never know who needs to unload somethin like that .

[Daze57]

or lowered springs - might be the way to go also

[FFredo]

Dan, as of right now I'm thinking 3X4 with 2X2 cross sills. I wont really make a choice until I'm standing at the racks in the supply house.

Daze, you can bet I'm keeping my eyes open for deals on Ebay, Craigslist and swapmeets. Only thing holding me back right now is I'm waiting for OK from the site admins so I can sell my parts to fund the build...It's a vicious cycle, sell parts to buy parts and repete... HA!!

[Daze57]

good luck dude ! pullin for ya - v v sweet machine !

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by FFredo

Dan, as of right now I'm thinking 3X4 with 2X2 cross sills. I wont really make a choice until I'm standing at the racks in the supply house.

Fredo, I like your choices. A 4" deep side rail will give it a beefy look without being TOO heavy appearing. How are you planning to make the arch over the wheel as shown on your sketch? I'm thinking fab an arch out of flat plate that; when done, gives the appearence of the 4" tube smoothly going up and over the wheel.

Originally Posted by FFredo

Daze, you can bet I'm keeping my eyes open for deals on Ebay, Craigslist and swapmeets. Only thing holding me back right now is I'm waiting for OK from the site admins so I can sell my parts to fund the build...It's a vicious cycle, sell parts to buy parts and repete... HA!!

Fredo, I'm trying to decide figure out how to lower my truck too. I'm debating lowering springs ($389 per axle) in 2" 3" or 4" lower. This is a multi spring pack from The Truck Shop in Orange (I'd do 3" rear, and 3" or 4" front, vs. Super Slides from Posies. I don't know their price but I'm assuming the same ballpark. I like the idea of the Teflon between springs to smooth out the ride. And of course there's always the dropped front axle but I keep reading a lot of steering related changes may be necessary, so I'm not sure.

As a side note, I just got back from Hot August Nights in Reno and I'm gonna post a separate thread with photos, but I DID see a '57 that was lowered in the rear with a flip but still had 5 or 6 leafs. I didn't speak to the owner so no idea what it rides like but I've heard good and bad (to very bad) about flipping the rearend on top of the springs. Still, with gas shocks MAYBE the ride would be ok. I'll be waiting to read/see what you decide on!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Just for the helluva it, here's a photo of the '57 I mentioned above that was lowered in the rear with the flip. I liked it's "attitude" (or maybe its altitude?!) for my own truck - obviously, I'm not "slamming".





I also posted a quick pic I took of the rear suspension: