Long bed to short bed conversion with pics

[jigsaw]

Here is my long bed to short bed conversion, ive seen a couple here but most of the pic are gone or memebers arent around anymore. U will need a short bed, small 25 gallon tank, front tank support bracket, cut driveshaft 14" or get a shaft from short bed truck ecsb/scsb depending what you have. Every pic will have a caption explaining the steps in detail but in short everything gets moved 14" foward and you cut 18 1/2" or 18 3/4" from rear of frame i will explain in pic. Your gas lines just takes a very slight bend and they reach the brake line has to have a more agressive bend or cut and flared. After that you need to remove slack from parking brake cable by either using a belltech parking brake bracket or replacing front cable with the short bed version. Drill new holes in frame for bed and bolt it on.

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Here you see a brace behind the cab that a short bed truck doesnt have i chose to remove it and move the 2nd brace where tank mounts foward 14" ive seen conversions where both braces are left in their factory position and short gas tank gets mounted at an angle. The ned mount circled needs to come off and is best to attach to new bed and then weld to frame.

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This brace will hit one of the braces under bed its easier to remove about an 1" from top to avoid clearance issues. The front of the tank is mounted using the factory short bed/tank mount bracket that bolts to frame. I only used 3 out of the 4 bolts just drill frame and hold with nuts

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brace it will have to be mounted at an angle and filled with flat stock or other metal i used 1 /12" flat stock the strut/shock mount no longer fits inside frame and has to be installed flush with top of frame rail where its straight.

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Here is a picture showing what i removed to clear frame and brace.

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Stock front hangers in their new location. You will need to remove some material from the factory cab mount in order to clear. At this position it raised the back about 1 1/2" if welded in you could raise it and be level or just buy lowering hangers.

 

[jigsaw]

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Search for 2" drop hangers for obs 88-98. Middle bracket is for parking brake cable and can be used to remove the slack once axle is moved.

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Picture showing 2nd bed mount (circled in 1st pic) how much it needs to move foward and up

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I installed bed to check measurements here you can see what needs to be removed from the back

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This is the back of the frame rail. Notice how top part sticks out 1/4" depending on where you measure, remove 18 3/4" if measuring from top or 18 1/2" if measuring from middle/bottom

 

[jigsaw]

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For some reason rear bumper bracket hits new rear shackle mounting bolts so i trimmed the ears

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Just need to install bumper and everything else. Fuel lines just had to remove from retaining clip and slightly bend to reach new tank. Rear brake line either cut and flare it or bend it. Parking brake cable you need to remove the slack either by replacing front cable with short cab version or using the belltech bracket that comes in the drop hanger kit. This is a 2wd 95 c1500.

 

[tpass]

I want so badly to do this to my 3500HD... except for a long bed. Nice work.

 

[Hipster]

No prep for welding, welded over the surface rust, looks cold welded without enough amps. You posted a look at what I did, so I am. I hope nothing comes loose going down the road.

 

[k1500 97]

No prep for welding, welded over the surface rust, looks cold welded without enough amps. You posted a look at what I did, so I am. I hope nothing comes loose going down the road.

For real. Should have bought a short bed. Someone could have used that long bed.

 

[j 1985 chevy]

I want so badly to do this to my 3500HD... except for a long bed. Nice work.

Don't just dont I've done it on a 1993 or 4 k1500 but I did not do it like every one else to dow it right cab needs to come off

 

[j 1985 chevy]

Don't just dont I've done it on a 1993 or 4 k1500 but I did not do it like every one else to dow it right cab needs to come off

O ya cab mount will need to be cut and moved new holes for the bead and fule tank fule lines brake lines and the cab mount are a pane in the you know what to line up but these is how gm did it I had my 1989 k1500 to go by not fun never will be fun im right naw doing a k20 frame of and that is fun

 

[618 Syndicate]

So you took an extended cab long bed and put a short bed on it?

 

[618 Syndicate]

Am I the only one who sees the axle isn't centered in the wheel well?