Shortbed conversion finally done.

[ford69557ci]

I have been messing with the old white ex cab for a few years now. Since i ditched the gold digging jobless girl friend I now have money and motivation to actually do something with this truck. Since I have not seen anyone give a good rundown on doing this coversion i figured I would give it a shot. To start out we pulled the old bed and dumped it off behind my friends body shop. We then torched off all of the old flatbed brackets and the 250lb tube bumper off. I had a complete 2wd short bed donor truck so i had a perfect bed, gas tank, and any brackets i might need.I measure the long bed frame and the short bed frame and came to the conclusion that I needed to take 16 inches out between the cab and bed and 8 inches off the back of the frame along with 16" out of the drive shaft. after removing the fuel tank and cutting all of the lines and wires we marked the frame from the top of the rails and used a plum bob to make sure the cuts on the frame would stay parallel. I have seen some people making z cuts in the frame for extra strength, but mine is just butt welded. After completing the butt weld Several holes were drilled in the frame and 5" tall pieces of 1/2" plate steel were plug and seam welded to the inside of the frame and the outside of the frame. Since this truck is going to be used mostly as a puller we boxed 2ft of the frame with 8" tall 1/4" plate steel. With all of this I don't think the frame breaking will ever be a problem. After getting the welding all done everything else bolted up like factory. The factory short bed gas tank even fit in the stock mounts perfectly and the bed bolted into factory holes and fit perfect. P pump is done, short bed conversion done, now its of to the body shop for some major work and some new Bermuda blue paint.

[dazedandconfused]

Looks good.

[Tacoclaw]

Nice work, welcome back, and

I ditched the gold digging jobless girl friend I now have money and motivation to actually do something

congrats.

[PToombs]

Welcome back ford! Glad to see you got your life back on track. Looking forward to seeing how this project goes.

[Gots_a_sol]

Nice, welcome to the extended cab, short bed crew

Any reason you didn't Z-cut the frame versus the straight cut?

[ford69557ci]

Lol thanks Pete. This women can drain ya fast. I did the start cut for simplicity. I used to be an Icar certified frame tech and the method I used is recommended repair procedure by the book. I have done several short bed conversions on Chevys and never had a problem. The frame is also boxed now so I think it will be just fine.

[PToombs]

Lol thanks Pete. This women can drain ya fast.

Your wallet or .......?

[CumminsPower59]