Slick 60's

i have a 63 f100 and it has the older style bed from the late 50s. i done a little reseach and in early 63 some truck were sold with the older bed. i was wondering if anyone had an opinion weather i should change it to the 60s style or leave it with the 50s style. the reason why i ask is because the body lines on the two styles do not line up right so i don;t know weather to stay original or upgrade to the same body lines

Do whatever you like, it's your truck. My take is don't replace a good bed. Save your cash for somthing else you want to do.

Depends on what your after , if you want to just use your truck as a truck then keep it the way it is , but if your looking to make it look right then i would change it. But whatever feels good to you is the way i would go. I'm sure there is a lot of people that wouldn't agree with what i am doing with my truck, but then i'm not building it for them.

Well spoken!!

if its the 8 foot bed the only other one to fit is the flareside bed or you can put a unibody on it . anything else requires custom fabrication.

ya know, its obviously up to you, but if it actually is the original bed, not something some PO dropped on it, I might keep it, just for the oddity factor...

Post some pics!

Welcome bab85

Like others have said your truck your choice.

My opinion on a fridge box on a 63 is I like them.
A stout well designed box in my eye.

bab85, Welcome!
All very good points above. She is all yours. I guess my opinion would be if your thinking of going original, keep it. IMO we could use some more 100% original trucks around here.

Here is a nice one.


You could build a flareside without too much trouble. The 1950 flareside fenders have a very nice line on them that I have thought would look great on a slick.

Also the tailgates with ford written in script would look great, I beleive they are from pre '53 but not certian. Although the tall sides look great on 4x4s, like ICEMAN's, I would build it with shorter sides like a short box truck. I would take a little off the rear also.

You could also shorten a 64 - 66 box. that's what I did. I liked the look and also it was the first bed I found. Pic below.

EDIT: I Just read through this again and got thinking... Is it a short box??? If it is then going to the newer style box is just a simple swap or going to a flareside would be correct for that year.

bab85,
Welcome to our group here at the slick 60's site & forum. . . . ...

Like the majority already stated, it's all about what you want when you're driving around in your Slick 60's Truck.
You did fail to mention if you have a short wheel base or Long wheel base truck.

If looks bother you change bed to what you like. If an original truck's your goal, you already have that.

It is not a major task to upgrade to a Styleside Pick Up Box. It's a matter of relocating where & how it mounts on your chassis/ frame.

After all since you did ask my (our) opinion (s), if it was my truck I'd opt for the Bed/Box with similar body lines & style of my cab.

I must warn you however I do not care about "Original" at all, except for keeping my powertrains within FoMoCo Family in Fords,
GM Family in GM's, & MoPaR Family in Chrysler Products. It's my general principles & respect for "Brand" too.

FBp

Bab85 Welcome to Slick 60's
There's the age old question with these trucks. That mis-matched box always bugged me even before i found out it was supposed to be that way/ I passed on buying a '63 Mercury that had that on it, mostly because I could not decide the same thing you are asking.

if your truck is a short wheelbase, 114", your options are relatively easy, as you can plop a short styleside box on from a 64-66 with very few problems, and it will match up nice.
If it is a long wheelbase, 120", the long styleside box from the years that match, 64-66 will not work so easily, as they are designed for trucks with a 129" wheelbase. Personally , I like jwh f-100's solution, [albumimg]2197[/albumimg]
where he altered a matching box to fit his 120" wheelbase. But it might be easier to make your wheelbase 129" by moving the springs and rear axle back, in the long run.
Anyway, there's some options for ya. Best o' luck

I like the flairside better for its looks ,but around this part of the country its hard to find one thats not half rusted away.

Johnny Canuck wrote: But it might be easier to make your wheelbase 129" by moving the springs and rear axle back, in the long run.

theres a couple reasons that wont work real well.
the arch of the frame over the rear axle for one.moving back the springs on the frame will not only lower the truck but change the pinion angle of the rear end.

best to add the length to the frame between the cab and axle then cut off what will then be the too long part of the frame behind the springs.
still a lot of work and messing around.

i would add that the only people who ever make comments about the bed matching are in this group.no one else that has seen my truck ever said anything if even they knew and i doubt it.

right you are, Ice. No simple solution for a 120" wheelbase truck, short of throwing a hard-to-find 8' stepside box on.

I believe you box is the old style because it is 4 wheel drive.

dbgrandpa wrote:I believe you box is the old style because it is 4 wheel drive.

It can be a 2 wheel drive too. They made them as seperate bed stylesides as well as Unibody trucks. Hawkrod

My signature is how i feel.

Lonnie

All 63 trucks produced that were not uni body were eithere a flair side bed or the style side 57 to 60 bed.

All 62 trucks produced are the same.

All 61 trucks produced are unibody or elair side. There may be a few 61s floating out there with the early bed but in 30+ years of colection, scrapping and wrenching i have yet to meet a 61 with the 57 to 60 bed.

Now this id for 2 wheel drive F100 and F250 only.

F350s of this vintage 61 to 66 recieved a nine foot flair side or a nine foot 57 to 60 bed, if so equipped.

All four wheel drives with the exception of the 66 F100 recieved the early 57 to 60 bed.

It is 100 percent correct, The 64 thru 65 bed will bolt on short beds only. Long beds need a little mount work.

Garbz

Cutting down a 64-66 long box really is not too bad. I cut mine straight across because my floor needs to be repaired anyway, but if I were going to do it again and I was able to find a good solid box I would cut it like this.


The three extra blue lines on the right (If you can see them) can be drawn on both sides for reallignment. The rear cut on the floor would be done first, then while in two sections work at removing the last bit of the floor from the front crossmember. It would be nessesary to tie that front crossmember to the box side to keep it in place.

Someone should put a fridge box on a twin I truck. That would make some people scratch thier head.

jwh f-100 wrote: Someone should put a fridge box on a twin I truck. That would make some people scratch thier head.

apparently you have not seen some of the South American ford trucks.they are quite a bit like that.