My 82 GMC 2WD budget sort bed conversion

[junkman.]

Ive had 1982 GMC 1500 2WD long bed rebuilt 6.2L diesel & 700R4 straight no rust for eight years and haven't drove it on the street its been no-oped so its time to do something with it.
My plan is to make it a short bed,new paint,lower it 2in. front three or so rear with 265 or 275/70R15 all the way around.
I picked up a 73 GMC shorty for $200.00 no motor & trans the beds in bad shape so I'm going to use the long beds outer skins and shorten them and install them on inside SB walls  than swap over the cab & all the parts from the 82 LB to SB frame. it going to be a daily drive here's some pic's

[Altec]

Is the LB rusted out, or dented up bad on the inside? A lot of people shorten beds. I think it would be easier to shorten your pre existing bed the pulling off the skins, and still have to do half the cutting/welding it would take to shorten your current one. Just my thought.

Nice truck! Always good to see a diesel! Sad to see a LB bite the dust. 

[junkman.]

I like the look of a SB and the LB is in perfect condition i probably should try to sell it but finding a new SB in perfect condition would be hard

all ideas are appreciated

[Captkaos]

with all the work you are going to do to make a Short bed from a long bed, it would be easier to just buy a Short bed.  The Long beds don't have the same angle as short beds. so you have a lot of sheetmetal work ahead of you.

[Swims350]

buy a bad shape but dirt cheap short bed and fix it, buy the repair panels from Chris(captkaos) on this site, the online catalog and then replace what's bad and have ya a short bed.

Now with that said I wonder if somebody can take a long bed, cut the front down enough, leave the middle alone, and then cut down the back, but cut the whole bottom taper off and get a short bed bottom taper/rear wheel bed bottom piece from like captkaos and weld that on and weld the bed back together. Then no need for the taper from the long bed to be wrong. By that on the short bed and long bed I would mean cutting the long bed bedside down, and if you could get the full short bed inner and floor off a junk truck or something.

However as mentioned all that cutting and welding would be better spent on a short bed with a rust issue or something.

[junkman.]

Do they make full repair panels or just a replacement bedside
cost for one side is $329.00 + shipping $125.00 x 2 that's to much for me now on the other hand i would trade a good LB for a good SB that only needs paint

thanks JM

[Captkaos]

If you are talking about shipping from me you can get 2 sides shipped for truck freight for the same price, but it isn't $125, it is $150 to a business and $175 to a residence.

[Swims350]

I was going to say if somewhere charges double shipping it's a rip off, if it's big items no matter whether it's 1 or 100 bedsides it should only be one charge of the freight cost or $125 and not $125 per side.

As for patch panels they have complete wheel arches, lower front, lower rear, rear corner around the light. Also tail gate post, inner wheel tub and outer wheel house(inside the bed) be floor whole and halfs and pieces.

[junkman.]

Thanks for advice I'm looking for a bed Craigslist and some other adds if i don't find one i want I'm going to shorten the LB bedsides and use the SB floor.
it looks like a lot of welding to put one of those wheel well patch panel in. if i start to shorten the LB sides I'll upload some pics but for now I'm removing all the front suspension and cross member and getting it ready for paint    

[junkman.]

Well got all the front suspension and cross member off and removed all the rear spring mounts.
the front mounts will almost get 3 in. of drop and the shackle mount 2.5 in. I'm going to modify the shackle mount to get bottom holes I'll ad some pic's tomorrow

the spacing for the spring mount are different from SB to LB frames and so are the springs 
is this because  of different years or lengths

thanks JM     

[Captkaos]

spring length is determined by the load capacity of the truck.  Either LWB or SWB can actually have either 53 or 56" springs.  Typically LWB had 56 and SWB had 53, HD SWB had 56 (heavy half)  This is for all 73-87 pickups.

[junkman.]

Thanks for the info  don't know the history of SWB truck it has 54 in. main leaf on it and the shackle is at the wrong angle. someone must of changed the springs   I will just move the shackle hanger
back 1/2 to 3/4 in. when i remount them

[junkman.]

here's some work done over the weekend  I moved the spring and shackle hangers. About 2 3/4 drop and I'm going to remove one leaf for now still need some new bolts. if its not low enough I'll re ark two of the bottom leafs

the shackle mounts need to go back 1 to 1 1/2 inch and up 3/8 inch

[Swims350]

if you want to go lower I'd look into getting rid of some leaves, that's a big spring pack kinda HD.

[junkman.]

swims that's good idea is you truck lowered and how many  leaves in your spring pack