Bed shortened

Been working on lots of little stuff, but nothing picture worthy- painting the new sidesteps, replacing rear rotors, changing around the wiring under the hood a bit, etc.  Last night i was able to meet Troy at his work and we made some good process finishing up the shortening of the bed.

I had decided that taking 8.5" out of the rear, along with the 3.5" we already removed from the front, would look the best using some crude photosshopping.  This would bring it down to a 7' bed.  The stock long bed was 8', the short bed models are 6.5'.  The short beds I've seen in pictures don't look quite right, they are just a bit too short and their tail light panel is too long.  I think when it's all finished up it will look like it should have come that way from the factory.

First we marked off the 8.5" and started cutting:

The 8.5" section removed...

The rear section was hung and clamped in place while we fixed the gap all around, then on to tacking it in.

As you can see there is a big difference between the transitions at the bottom of the bed side.  We brought the rear part down a bit and the front up a bit until they met in the middle:

It will still need a little shaping but it is solid now and can wait until after the bed is on the truck.
Here's a picture of the shortened bed:

 

Up next will be flaring the fenders and installing the bed.  It will finally be a truck again!