I'm about ready to purchase my "project" truck. It will be a second gen REG cab long bed truck 2wd.... I want to convert this truck into a reg cab shortbed as i have seen some other people on here do... basically i am curious how hard it was and how much $$$ you have in doing the conversion etc.. some things i've thought about that might need addressed are:

Driveshaft
Bed (obviously)
Brake lines?
Fuel Tank?

how hard is this conversion to do before i go buy a truck thanks guys!!!

Chris

 

r u making a drag truck?

 

na not really ... just a clean daily driver thats a little easier to park than my 10" lift dually lol... and i've always wanted to have a r/c s/b diesel since i saw one for the first time in diesel power... i just gotta do it haha


Chris

 

thers is a thread from a club cab short bed may be you could check that out might help

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ening+Club+Cab
my brother did that in mexico though its not too hard. my opinion

 

bump to the top

 

I don't think its that hard to do. When you cut a section out of the frame do it on a big diagonal so that when you weld it back together there is a much larger area that is welded also maybye weld a steel plate over the joint after you weld the frame. Find a shortbox. Redo the brake lines. You might need to have a driveshaft made I don't know. I think if your going to all that work you should tub the box so you can get really fat tires in there.

 

i am interested in this also, i would love some help finding more information

thanks
ryan

 

The fuel tanks are different in capacity. 25/35 gallons short/long.

Consider a tool/fuel box in the bed if that interests you.

 

I've always wanted to do a conversion to make a reg cab short bed cummins. But to suit my needs I'd have to make mine a 4x4, althought a 2wd that is lowered and tubbed would be pretty cool too. Good luck with your project if you end up doing it.

 

I don't know if anyone would be interested or not but I have a 2000 2wd gasser nv4500 3/4 ton long bed. I am taking the body off of it but I will be selling the complete entire chassis soon.
engine, 5speed and all.
Will let it go cheap to get rid of it.
Don't know if this would help any of you guys out with your conversion projects or not.
Drove the truck home about an hour and a half after I bought it and it ran super.
Anyone interested you can PM me.
I will be posting it in the classifieds section as soon as I get the cab off of it.

 

does anyone have any measurements on where to cut and all that good stuff, gonna be doing this in the next week, just cant find a regular cab short bed that hasnt been destroyed in the back to get measurements off of.

 

Cut in front of the front bed mount. Take 16 inches out and then the second mount back will be the front mount. We took 4 inches off of the end of the frame. Short bed regular cab gas tank which is 25 gallons. The front strap for the tank need a little modification but it will work. I would put a one piece drive shaft in, we left the two piece and shortened the back shaft to save some money. On the brake line we just made a loop on the frame and it worked fine.
Some say making a straight cut down the frame is not the best way but if you are a good welder it will hold. I've done this on several dump trucks and a couple of regular pickups and never had one bust. We did take a piece of the frame we cut out and cut it down and set it inside over the cut spot. Welded it on the top and lip on the inside but not up the sides. The next one we do I think I will make the piece of frame we lay inside taller and holesaw some holes in it and plug weld it to the truck frame.

 

Thank you so much, that is amazing! I owe you one.

 

The biggest problem we ran into was getting the frame back square up and down. We ended up clamping a piece of I-beam to the frame over the axle and setting a square up on it to square it up with the cab. With the frame running at an angle and no real square places where you cut it it was a pain. I think we ended up about a 1/4 inch out from the top of the bed to the bottom which you can't see.
The real way might be to set the bed on and get the gap exact, spot weld the frame and then pull the bed back off to finish. Hope this helps, if you need anymore info pm me and I'll send you my phone number.

 

Thank you so much. I really appreciate everything!