About to chop shop my bed

[Vossie]

Hi all.

first time posting in this forum. normally post up in the 40 section but seeing as how this is directly related to being a 45 thought i would post here.

backround...

mines an 82 FJ45 now with 12HT and h42. stock suspension for now. my 45 was assembled in zimbabwe which means i have the crappy made in willowvale bed. well made, but badly fitted, badly designed. so i want to fix that. heres a side profile pic of when i first got the body on...

and heres my crude photo shop to show current plan.

so the plan is wack off the very large ass of the bed and bring it in so its symetrical with the front part, ei, the bed is as long over the rear of the axle as it is over the front. i will also lift the bed by about 2 inches. lastly, will make a plate/box/side step to make the bottom of the bed line up with the bottom of the cab.

heres another angle and a more recent pic and its photo shop

right, now that i have a plan that im happy with all i have to do is do it....

 

[love2fly]

I personally would leave it long and just do the needed things to the bed to make it fit and look better. If you cut any of the frame off it will reduce the value of the old gal. Just my opinion, its your truck.

 

[chappohj47]

I would chop it if I didn't load long things into it. That photo on the hoist make the ute look really good.

Chop it

 

[Vossie]

I personally would leave it long and just do the needed things to the bed to make it fit and look better. If you cut any of the frame off it will reduce the value of the old gal. Just my opinion, its your truck.

I'm not ever gonna be worried about value. This cruiser will never be for sale. Learnt that lesson with my last one

I would chop it if I didn't load long things into it. That photo on the hoist make the ute look really good.

Chop it

No loading ever planned. If anything need to lose that nasty over hang so it doesn't catch on any rocks

 

[FJ404345]

If you want to cut it, i wouldn't, but it wil look better to cut it even in between as is now and how you photo shopped it.

 

[Vossie]

If you want to cut it, i wouldn't, but it wil look better to cut it even in between as is now and how you photo shopped it.

bit confused by this ... so how i photo shopped it is what you would do?

 

[FJ404345]

In between the two pictures you have posted. So like 10" shorter like it is now, or 10" longer then the photo shopped

 

[Vossie]

so ive spent some time in autocad modelling what i want the bed to end up looking like. that way its a case of only cutting once im happy. heres my final draft. the only thing im not 100% on yet is the overall width of the new bed. 1545mm might be a tad on the thin side if i dont run wheel arches. but the plan is for wheel arches in which case it should be spot on.

on the dimensioned pic above the top two are for the planned cut, the bottom two are of the bed currently. can see just how much wider i am at the moment. stock bed width is only supposed to be 1690mm and im at 1730mm.

any thoughts and experience with this type of thing would be kindly appreciated. looking at you @Twisty , seeing as how you built that awesome 45 bed

 

[crawlin cruiser]

It's not a factory box, cut away!

 

[Vossie]

It's not a factory box, cut away!

Definitely. If it had been a Japan spec box would never touch it. It is a factory box, but it's the local factory box which is terrible

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Can you drill out all the spot welds on the back and shorten or is it curved and welded in the back. When I shortened mine the sides were smooth and the piece removed was just relocated to its new position and re spot welded

 

[Twisty]

@Vossie sorry for the late reply on this. Below is the dimensions of my custom styleside tub for you to compare it too. My rear flares were 150mm wide and this setup covered the 315/70R17 tyres on 17x.8.5 rims with 0 offset on a 60 series rear diff housing.

 

[Twisty]

And just another photo of the ute similar to the angle of yours above.