Got bored on sunday, lots of cutting sheetmetal

[builttaco]

So I have been reading on the boards that alot of you have been talking about bobing your beds, I decided I would post my progress pics and hopefully help anyone with questions.
The first pic is what I started with. My bed was less than perfect makeing this alot harder than it should have been. I hooked a chain to the passenger rear corner and to a telephone pole and drove away slowly to pull the bed back into alignment, well as close as I could get it.
The seccond pic is a before and hopefully after the bob and redo of suspension lowering it 3" for better CG. I like the tall stance but for a better off-road rig I decided it had to come down.

[builttaco]

After measuring many times the cutting began, I did most of it with a cutoff wheel and the rest with a saws-all. The cutoff wheel went through the thin sheet metal like a hot knife through butter. EASY!! I cut a total of 14 3/4" out. How I came up with that amount? I wanted my bed to be as long as it is wide, a perfect square :saw:
I decided to cut a 2" strip of the scrap metal and weld it to the inside of the outer bed skin to help fill any gap there may be and to help line everything up.

[builttaco]

After welding the 2" strip on both sides and grinding the paint back I lined the front and rear sections up and started tacking it all together :welder:
I had to use a long pry bar to help push the skins together. Like I said before this would have been tons easier to do if I had a straight bed to begin with.
After lots of :welder: and grinding I am ready for body work. This is where I had to finish before I left town. I will keep this updated as I finish the bed and start on the suspension.
Thanks for looking and dealing with the gramatical an spelling errors :confused:

[builttaco]

I forgot to mention I have about 11" of frame to :saw: . I will be building a rear stinger/ tire carrier out of 1 3/4 .120 DOM and some sliders later on. maybe next month.

[AK98Taco]

Looks pretty sick, but do you have larger pictures?

Those are, quite honestly, pathetic ;)

[Brandon]

agreed. squinting doesn't help enough.

[builttaco]

I can email some bigger pics but this forum will only let me put a certain size up. And I am not a computer genious.

[bluetaco]

Hey shoot an email or PM over to Molly about posting up the larger pics(people will want to use your example in the future)...and get some photos of your multi link set up front and rear if you would while your at it. Nice work, your skill level really shows!

[tacotoy]

e-mail your pictures to me tacotoy@tacotoy.com and i will get them hosted up for ya

[builttaco]

Hey shoot an email or PM over to Molly about posting up the larger pics(people will want to use your example in the future)...and get some photos of your multi link set up front and rear if you would while your at it. Nice work, your skill level really shows!
Tacotoy was nice enough to host the pictures for me so they should be up soon.
I will post some pics of the suspension before and after lowering it later this week.

[builttaco]

e-mail your pictures to me tacotoy@tacotoy.com and i will get them hosted up for ya
I email them to you. Thank you for the help. Hope I didn't send to many :)

[tacotoy]

nah its fine.... ill get them all up tomorrow after work... im tired lol

[builttaco]

Thanks to tacotoy here is a link to bigger pictures.
http://www.tacotoy.com/Builttaco/
I did some more work today and will post more pic's tomorrow.

[Vic stuff]

nice job! your taco is sick as hell!

[AK98Taco]

Thanks to tacotoy here is a link to bigger pictures.
http://www.tacotoy.com/Builttaco/
I did some more work today and will post more pic's tomorrow.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

[builttaco]

Thank you for the complements guys.
Today I did some more :saw: . 11" to be exact off the back of the frame. I then welded in a piece of 3 1/2" square 11 gauge tube as a rear cross menber and a place to bolt my rear bumper (which is in the design phase look for a thread on my rear bumper and slider build next month) I will have some more pictures up this weekend

[builttaco]

I spent a couple of hours today :saw: the frame and :welder: in a new rear cross member/ bumper mount. I also decided to box in the last 11 inches for alittle added frame stiffining. and finally got some body work done on the bed

[pimptoy]

nice man

[Guapotaco]

man i want to do that,not quite this short but close at it,i'd like some more details about what all was involved in doing this,like what needed to be moved,shortened,rebuilt, etc...

[builttaco]

man i want to do that,not quite this short but close at it,i'd like some more details about what all was involved in doing this,like what needed to be moved,shortened,rebuilt, etc...

I really didn't have to move anything. Although if you decide to go with less drastic of a BOB you will have to relocate one of the bed/body mounts ( I just removed it all together) which is as simple as marking and drilling a new hole in your frame.
As far as shortening, you could shorten the wireing harness but I'm going to just loop it once and zip tie it up. Just not that anal and really don't want to splice all those wires back togother. Depending on your rear suspension (linked or leaf) you will have/want to shorten your frame to take advantage of your new departure angle. I cut so much out that I had to remove the spare tire crossmember, this is why I put such a beefy new cross member in and boxed the rear portion of the frame.
There is nothing to rebuild. However there is alot of spot welding and grinding to do, followed by ample amounts of body work ( I hate body work!)
My only advice is get yourself a plumb-bob and measure many times. I am still amased that with all the damage my bed had suffered previous to this project, I am still within 1/16-1/8 of an inch to being perfectly square.
I really haven't found this to be all that hard, if you have some basic metal working knowledge and some tools you can to it.

MEASURE!! MEASURE!! MEASURE!! And it will come out just the way you wanted.
Please feel free to ask any further questions, if you were in denver I would offer a helping hand, I get to Eagle about Twice a month but never make it to aspen. What a great place to live!

[Guapotaco]

yea it's cool up here,but damn spendy,i'll be coming down that way sometime and would love to see what you've done,i'll have more work just because of my rear bumper and bar set ups, as well as my air tank thats mounted where the spare tire was,and my bling lights,and the body mount more than likely,damn thats starting to sounds complicated,anyway i'll be doing this at some point,thanks for the info,i'd love to have some help doing this sometime if your willing

[builttaco]

yea it's cool up here,but damn spendy,i'll be coming down that way sometime and would love to see what you've done,i'll have more work just because of my rear bumper and bar set ups, as well as my air tank thats mounted where the spare tire was,and my bling lights,and the body mount more than likely,damn thats starting to sounds complicated,anyway i'll be doing this at some point,thanks for the info,i'd love to have some help doing this sometime if your willing
I am more than willing to help in anyway I can. If my rig is out of my shop at the time you could do it here. Maybe get some of the other people on the forum to come help, watch, or do what it sounds like they do best, drink beer. I have all the tools you would need. If we started early one day we could finish it late that night short of paint.
I am home a fair amount during the week and most weekends, so just let me know.
If you don't mind me asking, what do you do up in Aspen? I lived in Vail for 3 years and was a ski instructor during the day and managed a pizza returant at night. Was crazy expensive. I will live up there again someday.

[pimptoy]

lets do it i'll bring done all my metal working tools and some beer :xbeer2: and build guapo a bed and maybe me :D

[builttaco]

lets do it i'll bring done all my metal working tools and some beer :xbeer2: and build guapo a bed and maybe me :D
I am in just give me some heads up as to when so I can get my junk moble and out of the shop. I have most of the body tools but you can never have enough. Depending on timeing I am game to work on both beds. we could leave the trucks out and just do the beds in the shop then bring the trucks in and do the frames and body mounts.

[Guapotaco]

sweeeet,i need to get my rig done and then i'll be ready to do this,it might be a month or 2 but definetly before june if that works,i 've still got a couple major things to finish up before i go to moab,new front axle and hydro assist, then it's on :saw:

i work for the city up here,i run the indoor climbing wall and instruct kids, adults etc...,and guide climbing, and rafting outdoors in the summer as well
just down in vail last weekend at 8150 seeing the reverend horton heat,what made you leave?

[builttaco]

:D A month or 2 sounds good to me, I too need to redo my hydro assist (all new PSC stuff) and rework my front and rear suspensions and build sliders and rear bumper. :welder:
When are you going to Moab?
I left Vail to go to Florida for a year for flight school. And when I came back I went right into a job in Denver and never got back up there. Now I fly part time out of Eagle so I get to drive through alot.
Just keep me posted if you want to get together to do your bed and Pimptoys

[pimptoy]

:D :saw: :welder: :boobies: :headbang: :xsmokin1:

[builttaco]

work can be such a pain in the ass sometimes. It feels like I haven't been home forever. No update haven't been home to work on it at all. I will keep this post updated when I get a chance to finish the bob.

[builttaco]

I finally got the time to finish my bed. It turned out good given the condition of my bed when I began.
Well I tried to attach my photos but have exceeded my quota what ever that means. pm me if you want pics

[Brain]

Send me some pics!!! :D Badass truck, seriously... :welder: :saw:

[mayhem]

sweeeet,i need to get my rig done and then i'll be ready to do this,it might be a month or 2 but definetly before june if that works,i 've still got a couple major things to finish up before i go to moab,new front axle and hydro assist, then it's on :saw:

i work for the city up here,i run the indoor climbing wall and instruct kids, adults etc...,and guide climbing, and rafting outdoors in the summer as well
just down in vail last weekend at 8150 seeing the reverend horton heat,what made you leave?


I'd help out, I want to learn how it's done right and then do mine even though it is a Dcab, I think it would be sick...

Builttaco, that is one of the sickest tacos I have seen to date, I live in denver and would love to check it out sometime..

[DriftinCO]

what? no thumbnail pics? just file names?

[builttaco]

Sorry I am no computer guy and have no idea how to link to pics. And with this board you have to erase pictures to post more? I don't understand. I will have pics of it out of the shop with the finished bed, sliders, rear bumper and tube doors later this week. I will do my best to post some up before I go thrash it in MOAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pimptoy]

goto photobucket.com and post your pics they have free hosting then we can help you post them from there

[mayhem]

I'd help out, I want to learn how it's done right and then do mine even though it is a Dcab, I think it would be sick...

Builttaco, that is one of the sickest tacos I have seen to date, I live in denver and would love to check it out sometime..

Ok, Who's first? I'll help out with anyone that wants to do this!

Or we can do my truck.