Bed question

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Disco

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Hey, all.
My Big 10 has a 6.5' fleetside bed, but I really love the look of a stepside. I know I can swap over, and I know many of the vendors our there sell everything I need to build my own stepside from scratch. Here's my issue: my truck is dual tank, and I intend to keep it that way. But as far as I can find, they only sell fenders with filler cutouts on one side.

Were dual tank short bed stepsides mythical unicorns?
 

TotalyHucked

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They made them, just weren't super common. I work in the aftermarket industry and I can tell ya, if there wasn't alot of something, we're not gonna make it. It's just not profitable. You'll need to see if you can find a good OE fender with the fuel opening
 

Disco

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Makes sense. As I understand it, short bed fleetsides with dual tanks are kind of an oddity, so I can imagine stepsides were just that much rarer.
 

bucket

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They made them, just weren't super common. I work in the aftermarket industry and I can tell ya, if there wasn't alot of something, we're not gonna make it. It's just not profitable. You'll need to see if you can find a good OE fender with the fuel opening

Dual tanks on a stepside were not common, sure. But, 70's trucks had standard tanks on the passenger side and 80's trucks had standard tanks on the driver side. Does that not help the case? Lol.
 

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This one was dual tanks.

All you had to do was check the box on the order form.

K

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TotalyHucked

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Makes sense. As I understand it, short bed fleetsides with dual tanks are kind of an oddity, so I can imagine stepsides were just that much rarer.
Nah, I seen tons and tons and tons of short fleets with dual tanks. Steppers period are the oddity lol
 

TotalyHucked

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Dual tanks on a stepside were not common, sure. But, 70's trucks had standard tanks on the passenger side and 80's trucks had standard tanks on the driver side. Does that not help the case? Lol.
Yep, makes the case to not put a gas opening in either one :anitoof: The other problem is they follow the same round hole/square door breakdown too.
 

bucket

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Yep, makes the case to not put a gas opening in either one :anitoof: The other problem is they follow the same round hole/square door breakdown too.

What do you mean? '79 got the square door. Iirc, '80 still had it standard on the passenger side too. Only two years, but coupled with the 80's steppers that did actually get dual tanks, that's a lot of trucks.

Which one is the one that's not repopped anyways? I don't remember anymore.
 

Disco

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Dual tanks on a stepside were not common, sure. But, 70's trucks had standard tanks on the passenger side and 80's trucks had standard tanks on the driver side. Does that not help the case? Lol.
Early trucks had exposed gas caps. Later trucks had them behind fuel doors. So is that different on steppers? If not, was there an overlap where they switched sides with exposed caps, or had the door before the change in sides?
 

Disco

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I think the post above mine answered my question. lol
 

bucket

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I think the post above mine answered my question. lol

Yeah, they went to the fuel door, then changed sides a couple years later. Just like the fleetsides.
 

Disco

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Actually, if I'm reading this correctly, LMC has them. I do not remember seeing fuel allowance on both sides last time I looked. Guess I can make a dual tank stepper knock-down kit...

Nope. I’m reading it wrong. Literally says “without fuel hole.” I’m an idiot. Never mind.
 
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TotalyHucked

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What do you mean? '79 got the square door. Iirc, '80 still had it standard on the passenger side too. Only two years, but coupled with the 80's steppers that did actually get dual tanks, that's a lot of trucks.

Which one is the one that's not repopped anyways? I don't remember anymore.
Just meaning there's that many more tools/inserts to make in order to cover a not very popular part. Lemme look to see what we carry.

'73-80 RH with round gas hole:

'79-87 LH smooth:

'79-87 RH with the gas door:

So the LH with the gas door and gas hole is not repopped to my knowledge. Not sure why they'd do the ones they chose to do (we don't make these), I would've done all the versions for the 70s trucks before I covered the '80s cuz I feel like there's more round eye steppers. But either way, I can tell ya there's no plans to fill those voids, we hardly ever sell the stepside stuff we do have.
 

bucket

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Just meaning there's that many more tools/inserts to make in order to cover a not very popular part. Lemme look to see what we carry.

'73-80 RH with round gas hole:

'79-87 LH smooth:

'79-87 RH with the gas door:

So the LH with the gas door and gas hole is not repopped to my knowledge. Not sure why they'd do the ones they chose to do (we don't make these), I would've done all the versions for the 70s trucks before I covered the '80s cuz I feel like there's more round eye steppers. But either way, I can tell ya there's no plans to fill those voids, we hardly ever sell the stepside stuff we do have.

Interesting. That makes sense for the 70s trucks. As in, you cater to all of them with a single tank. Well, other than the plain left fender with a marker hole. But 70's dual tank folks are out of luck as well as all of the 80's folks.
 

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Yep. In a perfect world, we'd literally make it all
 

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