Chevy C10 Short Bed - Bed Bobbing Basics
The additional 6 inches were cut from the rear of the bed, which left a segment of the inner bed wall. With the rear segment jacked up, and the mating surfaces cleaned, there's hardly any difference between the body line on the bed in this area. | 
The inner 6 inches of body line were fed inside the inner bed wall, and provided a general bed alignment, as well as an area to clamp the two surfaces together. | 
After measuring to ensure the bed length was cut accurately, we ran a tape and cut the bed exactly 6 inches shorter. We then used vise-grips and some angle iron to fix the bed length. At that point, it was obvious our Sawzall skills were about 1/16 inch from being perfect. We wound up running a small pneumatic reciprocating saw between the two surfaces to square up the cut from the front and rear bed segments. | 
Even though the majority of the top surface of our bed was smashed, bent, and dented, a 4-foot section of angle with some tightly crimped vise-grips pulled the bed's top edge straight. | 
While trying to mate the two surfaces, we needed to make sure the bed was the same length from left to right. The small blade run between the front and rear bed segment provided the perfect amount of gap for welding. The small gap between mating surfaces is optimal for weld penetration. | 
The bed's overall length was then measured to ensure its length. Then, the bed was strapped and pulled to bring the bed in to square; a position this bed had obviously been in before. Afterwards, tacks were made to set the two sections back together. | 
To prevent warping the sheetmetal, small runs of weld stitched the bed sides back together. The occasional body hammer and mandrel were used to stress-relieve and quench hot spots on the sheetmetal. | 
We then removed weld scars from the panel surface by lightly rubbing a cutoff wheel on the weld. We used little to no pressure and paid attention to the weld and panel surfaces. We used this method to quickly get the weld down to a more equal level. Then, a 90-degree grinder was used to get the panel surface even again. A similar treatment was performed on the front section, except that a 12-inch section was removed from the front of the bed to bring the truck into a C10 wheelbase. | 
After the front and rear sections were welded, the bed was stripped, dents were repaired, and it was prepped for a sealing primer. | 
Should your measurements go awry, or you get a little overzealous with the welder, don't throw the project away. early Classic enterprises reproduces a shortbed kit, and just shy of a frame shortening the kit, it comes complete with bed sides, bulk head, rear bed gate support, wheelwells, wood floor kit, bed floor supports, taillight fixtures, bulbs, lenses, lens seals, tailgate latch assembly, bolt kit, and lower wheelwell support rails. | 
The shortbed standard cab truck has been the staple of custom trucks for years. Even with the growing popularity of extra cab and extended cab trucks, the fleet side shortbed has held its own. As demand has been high in the classic-truck realm, many longbed frames have been shortened to accommodate the "six foot" bed. Here, you can see the difference between the longbed and shortbed frame. | 
Looking over the longbed frame, when we cut 12 inches out of the front of the bed, the front bed mounts were eliminated from the bed floor supports. With that in mind, we opted to cut the 12-inch section from right behind the cab, which eliminated one of the three bed mounts between the rear tires and the back of the cab. |
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