I have an old shortbed trailer my grandpa made out of a 50s Chevy stepside bed, I’m comparing measurements to see what I’d need my dimensions to be. Looks like the tub is 50" wide on the inside, 6ft long obviously. The bed of the trailer is actually really rotten and it’s welded to the trailer frame so I wouldn’t even think of trying to use the old bed. Sides are okay but the base area that meets the floor is what’s bad.
Can you guess why it’s rotten? Definitely not because it’s just another junk pile and leaf collector that gets rained on, surely. I’m 30 years old, and I’ve never seen this trailer moved from that spot behind the shop.
Some point in the 90s my dad robbed the old fenders off for a truck, and put on some Ford or generic fenders I think.
I was actually thinking of putting the Fleetside bed from the square body on this trailer frame after checking to see if it’s still sound, and try lengthening and relocating the axle further back. We somehow still have the title for this trailer.
I wouldn’t do that Cody. That bed could bring you some money. One thing Chevy Pick ups are known for is rusting out around the wheel wells. Should be good for at least a few hundred bucks or more. Those are popular trucks to restore.
Yeah, I should probably list the bed on Marketplace or something. Heck it even has a tailgate that mostly works! Just gotta hold the handle up to shut it.
Here’s how wide the bed would be as a Stepside. 50" on the dot with 9 of these 2x6 boards. Heat Treated US lumber.
With the bed being narrowed I could compensate some by adding compartments behind the wheels, maybe just frames to mount a basket/box or a spare tire holder. Would give a cool Touring Truckster kind of look and be sensible at the same time.
Also I forgot to mention when I relocated my gas tank and put on my new helper shocks, my passenger side stopped sagging and it’s even now. I haven’t replaced my rear leafs yet, I took a good hard look at the leaf packs and the bushings and everything seems fine to me. I’ll save the new springs for later on.
Cooling rail tree would need to be narrowed but I just have to suck it up and actually take my time lining things up. Tree would also have to be mounted after the gasifier unless I wanted to get “creative” and use a bunch of curved tubing, sounds like a headache to me.
I’m thinking of making sides out of wood as well, and have the cooling rail go on the outside to catch as much breeze as possible.
I keep flip-flopping but I’d rather do it now than when I’m halfway into the bed itself and hate it.
Got the hole drilled in my other fender for the 2nd gas delivery. 2.25" exhaust fits really well but I think I’ll just use PVC and spray it with some UV protective paint.
I was playing around with different heights for the bed spacers now that I don’t have to worry about the bed hitting the tires, I used a 2" spacer in the front and a 3" spacer in the back to give the bed some rake. I know @ccweb1 warned about his flatbed looking a little squatted when it’s weighed down. Using the different spacers puts the metal frame close to the truck frame, so if it bottoms out it will rest on the hump of the frame instead of flexing too much.
Some late night pondering on the Chevy vacuum advance for when I’m purely on woodgas.
One benefit of my low compression engine is it can tolerate a lot of ignition timing, I’m set to 12°BTDC and total is 34°BTDC without vacuum figured in.
I remember that Mother Earth News directly hooked a bicycle shifter cable to the advance pot so they could lock it into the full advance and not worry about the manifold vacuum dying back, they mentioned it in their Dual Fuel Carburetor article to convert a Holley 2bbl or a Quadrajet 4mv for woodgas, I didn’t see any photos of the actual work done though they mention it’s attached to the center rivet of the diaphragm. It apparently depends on the vacuum advance that you have that dictates how many degrees you get at full vacuum. I think mine advances by 15° but I forget and I’m usually dead wrong when relying on my memory for numbers, I’ll have to check it with my timing light.
I’m going to take my distributor cap off to see if I can understand what MEN was talking about with attaching the cable to the diaphragm, hoping I can find an easily reversible way to get it done.
A second bike shifter — this one connected to the center rivet of the distributor’s vacuum advance diaphragm — governs the engine’s ignition timing under load.
Here’s something a little perplexing. This trucks GVWR is 4900lbs. Most people say this truck weighs about 4000lbs maybe 3800lbs if you’re 2wd.
Is my carrying capacity really just 900lbs? There’s no way.
Both of my GAWR for front and back is 3100 lbs, and I know it’s just a static measurement but it would make more sense if my GVWR was 5500 lbs. That would be an even 1500lb payload.
I’m gonna have to weigh this truck when I get it done.
Edit: only source I can see for my truck’s curb weight is actually for the 1978 C10. Long bed 2WD weighs about 3770 lbs. That means not counting me and the gasifier my carrying capacity will be just shy of 1200 lbs.
Edit 2: oh almost forgot to share what I’ve got done on the driver floor pan.
Air hammer with a chisel bit worked great for removing the rotten pan. Looks like up to the firewall is going to be replaced. I cut out a bit more, I was maybe 3/4 of the way done when I took this picture.
Rockers will be done at a later point, and I’ve got some sheet I can fit where the seat pan meets the rocker panel.
I had a few floor board patches on my Dakota as well,up to and a little bit of the fire wall, Them Dakota frames are quite thin and I replaced the entire rear frame on my Dakota, My next Dakota might be a Chevy S10 with a 350 Chevy motor, probley lighter than the 99 Dakota I picked up for 400.00$ before COVED and the inflation cost drove up used cars and trucks. THE salt up here in Michigan likes them Dakota frames too much, or the steel quality was poor on some models.
Before you start putting that back together spray the rust with Phosphoric acid. A 30 per cent solution is usually enough but I used to have a gallon of 45 per cent my son gave me. Either will seep between the spot welded seams and kill the rust. The pink navel jelly they sell is Phosphoric acid in a gel base. Not as strong as the commercial stuff but will work if you can get it between the seams.
Oh no I already cut out all the actual rusty parts. Floor supports got wire wheeled and converter sprayed after this pic was taken. I had to strip the top surfaces off though to spray on some weld through primer so I can get the spot welds done. Driver side rocker is going to be totally replaced so I’m not as concerned about that.
Not to drag up an older part of your thread, but these guys laminate the plywood.
I didn’t look to see what they are using. Maybe carbon fiber, which is a lot like fiberglass, but lighter and stronger. Fiberglass is bonded to plywood a lot for boats, but I don’t think it holds up well with the shock of throwing stuff in that back and abrasion resistance.
I wasn’t going to buy any, I already had a big stack. Luckily for me we got more 2x6 dimensional lumber so I can finish the bed.
My next challenge will be weight watching this truck because of the low GVWR. Old bed probably weighed 400-450 lbs, I vaguely remember someone saying a WK system is around 500lbs? I forget and I’m having a time searching for a definite answer. So if my truck’s curb weight is 3770, minus 450, plus 500, plus me(about 240), that leaves me with a 900lb payload. Not sure what the bed will weigh but I’m glad these 2x6s are softwood. I won’t really know until I get it all done.
I didn’t think you would -buy- it. I was just pointing at other options, namely it is the coating they use. I would probably stain it and put a coat of polyurathane on it. like how you finish a hardwood floor even with the pineboards you settled on.
I looked a little more into the options that made for a Heavy Half/Big10. Basically the frame can handle Heavy Half loads even with the stock springs but what raised the GVWR was things like Power Brakes and better tires(my tires are 115T so it’s double the original rating).
Technically even without upgrading my springs, if I get a brake booster my truck would have been rated for 5600lb GVWR. Upgrading to heavier springs all around would be a Heavy Half at 6000-6200lbs.
I was more worried about damaging the frame and suspension than stopping. I really should look into upgrading to power brakes. I have to stand on these manual brakes pretty hard.
With the frame already exposed I’d just box the frame rails up to where the cab starts. I did it on a 1978 Ford Bronco that I used for a snow plow truck. Added air bags to the front to carry the weight of a big plow and added coils between the leafs and frame. Now days i’d just spring for coil over shocks in the rear.
I did end up getting coil over shocks, the Gabriel brand ones. Apparently a full set all around the truck assists for 500lbs. Maybe I’m misunderstanding and you mean some jumbo heavy duty coilovers.
I found out too late that the helper springs I ordered won’t work with those shocks, they’d end up hitting on a bump. I’ll have to get the helpers that actually get added to the leaf pack.
Edit: I could always take some of the leaves out of the old springs and add them to the new ones, but they’d be matching lengths unless I trimmed them progressively.
I always considered the factory shock and spring brackets just a suggestion. Going back to the age of dynosaurs, when I was a young drag racer we used to move those spring hangers a few inches forward and shorten the driveshaft so that on launch the rear would drop down adding weight behind the wheels for added grip. Don’t know if it really made that much difference for all the screwing around involved but when you are twenty years old logical thinking has not yet developed. Anyway, those factory load ratings are way under valued in my experience. I’ve had 2500 pounds of cement blocks in the bed of a three quarter ton Dodge and wasn’t on the bump stops yet.
I’ll focus on upgrading my brakes to the 2nd half of the 20th century, then. Power Brakes actually don’t cost that much all things considered. Same discs, same drums.
Or I could just gain back some weight to stand on the pedal more.
We inherited my great-grandfather’s '72 Chevelle. I know what you’re thinking , but it was a four-door . Vinyl floor mats, bench seat, moon hub caps (factory !?!?), 350, hydramatic, and the last two I will never forget: manual brakes, manual steering. It was undriveable, especially for my wife. It took four feet on the pedal to stop fast, 7 1/2 turns stop to stop on the steering, and still harder to turn than my '72 Chevy one-ton with manual. I went to Pick-a-Part, and pulled the brake booster from a similar vehicle, stretched the brake lines and put the booster under the existing master cylinder, and never bothered to bleed. I pulled the power steering system as a unit, hoses and all, in one piece, and stuffed it in where there had only been a steering box. I forget if I had to get an alignment. In the days before everything was drained to help the environment, you just had to check the fluid to see whether the parts had a chance of working. The power steering fluid came along free.
My wife had been driving the '76 Maverick with the 250 six, complete with collision bumpers, she had when we got married. The first time she got on the freeway, it about scared her to death. The Maverick was a two-door. Isn’t that the way it goes.
Ahhh, those were the days.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming . . .
I wonder if I’ll have to change my pedal out if I buy a new brake master cylinder and booster to convert it to power brakes. They should be interchangeable, right?
Thank God I have power steering. I put in a 17" steering wheel and it’s no joke 1 finger steering. It screams when I go to one of the ends, not sure if that’s normal or if it means the pump is on its way out.
, but it was a four-door 
. Vinyl floor mats, bench seat, moon hub caps (factory !?!?), 350, hydramatic, and the last two I will never forget: manual brakes, manual steering. It was undriveable, especially for my wife. It took four feet on the pedal to stop fast, 7 1/2 turns stop to stop on the steering, and still harder to turn than my '72 Chevy one-ton with manual. I went to Pick-a-Part, and pulled the brake booster from a similar vehicle, stretched the brake lines and put the booster under the existing master cylinder, and never bothered to bleed. I pulled the power steering system as a unit, hoses and all, in one piece, and stuffed it in where there had only been a steering box. I forget if I had to get an alignment. In the days before everything was drained to help the environment, you just had to check the fluid to see whether the parts had a chance of working. The power steering fluid came along free.