Longbed Inspiration needed

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79dentside

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69 Posts and still not inspired?

Plenty inspired! The old girl just needs work in ALL departments and that’s a little expensive haha. I’ve got a shopping cart on JEGS the fluctuates... torque converter, flexplate, headers... as well as other sites for cab corners, rockers, a welder.... I need tires though. They don’t bite even though they have good tread.
 

devin bianco

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Plenty inspired! The old girl just needs work in ALL departments and that’s a little expensive haha. I’ve got a shopping cart on JEGS the fluctuates... torque converter, flexplate, headers... as well as other sites for cab corners, rockers, a welder.... I need tires though. They don’t bite even though they have good tread.

fixing the rust while its still fairly solid is probably a good idea, especially considering aftermarket patch panels are not always very accurate, its nice to have reference points from oem sheet metal.
 

79dentside

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fixing the rust while its still fairly solid is probably a good idea, especially considering aftermarket patch panels are not always very accurate, its nice to have reference points from oem sheet metal.
This is good advice. I don’t have the means to fix it. I have clearcoated, or POR 15’d the bad areas until I can fix it. Kinda rocking the sleeper look for now.
 

79dentside

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What good is a thread without a follow up... here’s what I ended up doing.

1979 GMC Sierra Heavy Half. Ended up dropping the front 3” and the back roughly 4”, I didn’t count. I think someone may have started to lower it before I had it so I’m not sure how much lower the rear is now. I changed wheels to 5 lug 16” Steelies.
F: 16x7 (4”bs) 235/85/16 w/ 1.25” spacers
R: 16x8 (4” bs) 285/75/16 w/ 1.25” spacers (with the spacers, it cuts it too close, tires rub...)

I also used 3/4 Ton Hubcaps that I made my own retention clips for.
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I couldn’t work on the outside without messing with the power barn too. The 285’s hook up pretty well..
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mcarlo86

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That is badass! Very well done with the wide steelies and the hubcaps. I like it.
 

Craig 85

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Looks awesome. I posted on the other thread regarding your comment about going to possibly wider fronts.
 

79dentside

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Looks awesome. I posted on the other thread regarding your comment about going to possibly wider fronts.
I appreciate!! Thanks for the link, that helps!!!
 

79dentside

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I like those conduit hanger clips you fabricobbled. Great idea for an upsource.
You got me!! I acquired the hubcaps AFTER I bought my wheels. I wanted to run 16’s with half ton center caps, problem is I accidentally bought 3/4 ton caps and I needed to get creative. I traced the hubcap onto the wheel where I wanted it to center up and then I used them conduit hold downs and made fingers that were roughly correct in relation to the line I traced. Once I liked my 2 clips, I hot glued them to the rim so I could test fit it before drilling holes. I then got one of them rubber electric ring dealio’s from menards and it fit PERFECTLY ironically. I use this basically as the roll over point. It hooks the fingers first, then rolls/snaps over the rubber radius on the opposite side of the wheel. Once I was happy with the tension of the cap, I drilled my holes and made identical retention fingers. Took some pictures if anyone cares. May help someone that got themselves in a pickle like myself.... buying the wrong hubcaps haha. But hey it actually worked better. They hold on like no body’s business.
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I also stripped the hubcaps and went a different route. I used some spare vinyl wrap and an exacto knife to get the black inlay. Top black ring was some spare pinstripe tape from another car and the red was a paint pen. I then put 2K clearcoat on them. The hubcaps are beat to heck, but so is the truck. I can always acquire better ones later if I care enough.
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Here is a demo of how they snap on.
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Swearbody

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Ive gotten pretty creative with stuff myself. I used to work in a retail cabinet/fixture shop. We used them for shelving brackets for shoe shelves. We just put them on the press and flattened them out, then put a 90deg bend in them with a hammer while the end hung out of the press. We ordered them from china by the thousands.
Probably why they stood out to me.
 

79dentside

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Ive gotten pretty creative with stuff myself. I used to work in a retail cabinet/fixture shop. We used them for shelving brackets for shoe shelves. We just put them on the press and flattened them out, then put a 90deg bend in them with a hammer while the end hung out of the press. We ordered them from china by the thousands.
Probably why they stood out to me.
That’s actually very smart, not gonna lie.
 

devin bianco

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This is good advice. I don’t have the means to fix it. I have clearcoated, or POR 15’d the bad areas until I can fix it. Kinda rocking the sleeper look for now.
thats fair, por15 is a life saver that stuff works great. As long as the rocker and cab corners are still present, it will look 10x better than majority of squares in the midwest lol.
 

79dentside

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I aired up the airlines and it helped the rubbing issue, but now it is a bit too raked for me... still looks mean, but I think I’m going to run no air in the shocks and have the occasional rub hahah.
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