Yesterday was a big day for my build. After a few scheduling conflicts I've had to push back painting the sides; so, I finally decided to just put the truck back together because I've been anxious to see how it all fits. This was the first time I've had the short bed or wheels on the truck since shortening the frame.
Here it is after getting the sides back on and aligned. Since I had the bed mocked up before the frame was shortened, there really were no surprises here. The nice thing, however, was to see that the body lines matched up perfectly after shortening the frame 12" and raising it 2.5".
After taking in the first view of my truck as a shortbed for a few minutes, I moved on to the next step, bolting on the wheels! This was the part I was most worried about. I chose to go with a 4" backspace on a 9" wheel with the stock rearend, even though all recommendations I read were no less than 4.5". Since I removed the outer half of the inner fender, I figured I had the room so I went with 4" and it paid off! Even with that BS, I still have about 1" of clearance to the outer fender and have plenty of room to go lower if I want. It was almost comical seeing the difference in size between the new setup and the old setup, but after getting used to it for a few minutes it looked right.
All that was left was to bolt on the fronts and sit back and enjoy the view.
Of course, it still looks a little goofy because I don't have the stance where I want it yet. All four corners have been lowered about 2" thanks to heated springs by the PO and the rear has an additional 2.5" by raising the frame during the shortening process. Ideally, I'd like to swap out the springs to 4" rear and 3" fronts with 2" blocks in rear and 3" spindles up front. That will get it down to where the top of the wheel just meets the fender. That's a project for down the road though, so for now I'll just have to enjoy it like this.