Swapping Utiline for Sweptline bed?

[nfury8]

I was finely able to get my donor swept bed on to the truck today, very exciting!
However, there was one issue. The frame appears to be a couple inches to short
to reach the rear most bolt holes in the bed. The truck is a 70 W200 crew, that
was a Utiline. The replacement bed is a swept bed from a 67 or 68 ( I forgot, but
it doesn't have reverse lights.) Is this normal? Is there a missing piece?

I have an idea for a modification, but curious why they don't line up?
The other bolt holes all line up.

[Oldguy]

Got the same problem with the 70 crewcab in my yard. Seems the Utiline frames are about 3 inches shorter. Haven't put the bed on the truck yet so not sure about the mounts lining up. Thank god for my blue tip wrenches! LOL Mike

[soopernaut]

I replied in your build thread, but i think the frame length issue is due to having a Utiline bed originally. Reverse lights were first used in 1967 and your other bed picture clearly shows the holes were there.

[Russ]

In your pic is the bed sitting in it's correct position? On my 69 truck the rear frame rails end right where the wood block is in your pic. If your bed is sitting in the correct position it looks like the rear of the frame is wider than mine, or the mounting pads on the bed are closer together.

UPDATE: I looked at the pic again and saw that the bed was turned slightly, so disregard the paragraph above.

It's interesting to me that Dodge put out instructions for a modification where you actually modified the frame, even though slightly. Probably wouldn't be allowed to do that now.

[PowerMan]

Here's a few pages from an old Dodge book that tells you how to build the frame extensions. I had to do this on my '62 W100 when I put the Sweptline bed on it.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/390 ... c50f_b.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2545/390 ... 081b_b.jpg

If the image isn't very clear go to the link below them.