Stake bed + face change... possible?

[botas]

Hello everyone, recently I've been packing what life had hit me with being a fresh legal adult. But I'll always make up something for the junk I got home. (75 dart, blown 02 S10 i got a donor for, etc etc)

I have a 84ish sierra 3500 dually single single cab sitting around and ive been in the means of trying to change it up a bit
first of all, My Pops is pushing me to change the face on the ugly MF because the grill is sun beat and he likes the older look (80-82) considering the truck has the face of the 82 diesel optioned face (instead of 4 headlights its 2 singular with a Buck ton of plastic trim filling the spaces) either a suburban change or classy 80 look instead of the old head look.
Another task: It was my Uncles welding truck, He sold it to us not too long ago and he'd like to use the welding stake bed in exchange for a long bed. I havent taken at look at it yet but any pointers taking those large and instrial sized beds? Its all around makes it look like a unit of a truck all 12' of it.
thoughts? Let me know if im doing anything wrong.......... ill provide pics

 

[Scruffy49]

Looking from underneath, are there holes in the top frame rail for bed bolts? If the answer is no, you have a c&c, and they were not designed for a normal bed.

Look at the gap from inner tire to the frame. Huge gap, normal truck. Tiny gap, c&c. Example shown is a gmt400 c&c, but the same principle applies. There were a few special order normal bed trucks with a c&c dually axle and metal “flare”, but the odds of actually finding one outside of the Saudi oilfields or rotting in a government yard are astronomically low.

Go full odd duck up front… 81/82 bumper and turn signals, stacked quad lights, 83 grille center. Retrofitting to the 1980 (only) front end is more work than you’d expect…

 

[Grit dog]

Most all 80s front clip parts are interchangeable. As for your other question, not sure anyone understands what you’re asking, but if it’s “Can you replace a 12” long stake bed with an 8’ long pickup bed?”, the answer is NO, not without a lot of cutting welding and modification.
If you have a 12’ bed now, it’s a long wheel base C&C. Prohibitive to modify into a pickup truck IMO unless you’re good enough to be cutting and welding frames.