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Shortened wheelbase 54???

Purec4

Purec4

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Kingsport, TN
Anyone shortened the wheel base and bed on one of these here and have pics?. Wondering what it would look like to shorten the bed between the cab and the rear fender. Bringing the fender up almost to the cab.. Since I"m replacing the rear frame half, do it now right? if it looks good. Thinking of the old Willy's gasser pickups. One of many ideas trying to decide on, even considering the cookie cutter (lol) S-10 swap that seems to be a topic to stay away from....:D Faster, easier and possibly cheaper... ANyway that's my question for the day. Thanks all, and please bear with me as I try to find a direction to go... Son says go low, and I like that, but Gasser stands out in my mind too.. :confused:
 
To keep the bed proportional, you need to cut the same off the back of the bed, but then you will have a clown car proportion. This does, however, work on COE with truck bed conversions, loooks like a bob tail hauler.
 
In looking at pics of beds on these trucks there is very little bed behind the fender to the tailgate so there would be nothing to shorten there. So in what you're saying the bed would just be too short in relation to the length of the hood to remove say 8" of the bed length ahead of the fender?
 
Good imagination???

If you have one, look at Spika's "Pics from the road". (page 2 of this forum now...)

If you don't, then have a few adult beverages and THEN look at his truck's bed, and imagine the space between the picket by the front of the fender and the picket behind the cab being gone. That would give you an idea of what it would look like to shorten the wheel base. With his paint idea, that would look "tits", no? :cool:

This is a great place to get ideas. I have been all over the place trying to figure out what I want to do. Thank God I haven't rushed anything. Doubt that will ever happen, unless I end up with a bunch of extra $$$... *right*.
 
I wasn't going to weigh in on this one, but...

I started looking at my truck this evening and if you want to take 8" off of the wheelbase, it needs to be off of the area in front of the back fender.

The distance between the inner most part of the back stake pocket and the rear-most part of the back fender is 5". The distance between the front of the fender to the front stake pocket is 13". Logic says you shorten the distance from the front of the back fender to the front stake pocket. In order to do that, you're going to have to shorten the runningboard by 8" and shorten the splash apron by the same amount. If you have the technology to do that, I say "Go for it"! Be advised that the shorter the wheelbase, the rougher the ride.
 
Eh~hemm...

Not that Ken would know, of course. He's like me. He looks at his truck and imagination takes him away~ not the gas. :rolleyes:
 
Ya know...take a picture of your truck from straight on to the side view, or get a pic from the net. Pretty much anyone with any Photoshop skills can very effectively remove however much wherever you want from your truck, and you can see where you like the look best, or if you want to do it at all. I'm not real good at it, but if you want me to try to do what you're thinkin', let me know and I'll play with it a bit when I get back home Thursday. Odds are you know someone who has Photoshop and can do it for you, but if not let me know. Perhaps you said already, but are you working on a 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton? The 1/2 is already a bit shorter than the 3/4 in my pics...
tjs
 
Its a 1/2 ton to my knowledge. With the truck torn completely down taking pics isn't an option, have to find some and look at it more. Hard deciding on the look that I want. My son wants me to lower it and I like that look, but being pulled towards a Gasser look. The only way I think the gasser style can be pulled off is with a shortened wheelbase. But I'll keep looking for pics of old gasser pickups. Thanks guys
 
Very cool!

Thanks Ken, that's a blast to look at. Might even spot one from a person's past, you never know.

Bob
 
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