The process of making an aftermarket bed assembly work has begun. We got the floor, front panel, sides, tubs, and tailgate all put together. A list of the modifications:
-Trimmed 3 out of 4 front/rear edges of tubs. They were pretty wide and were resting on the ridges in the bed in most spots.
-Elongated the holes in pass side tub where it bolts to the bedside. The whole tub needed to move about 1/4" rearward to get holes to line up with the floor.
-Elongated the top two holes in the front end of the bedsides where the bolt threads into the captive nut of the front panel.
-Trimmed excess material from the tailgate so the linkage could fold up completely.
-Cut and rewelded the pockets in the bedsides where the rear cross sill slides into.
-Elongated a couple holes in the tubs/floor so they would bolt up
-Trimmed excess material from driver bedside where front panel curl slides into the bedside.
Not trying to steer anyone away from buying an aftermarket bed, this is just a list of what I encountered and I don't think any of it is unreasonable. It's just what you have to do with aftermarket sheet metal. I still have to fit the skirts, those will take some modification too. Spoiler alert - we bought another 67-72 but we found a factory shortbed to put on it. So I'll have experience with a nice clean aftermarket bed assembly and the fitment issues that come along with it as well as the experience of taking apart and refinishing and repairing a factory bed soon.
So we got the bed set on the truck and man are the wheel openings on these trucks huge! I'll have to do something about that down the road because these tires are way too small. I could easily fit 20's with low profile tires. These wheels and tires were on my dad's 64 which has much less room in the rear wheel well compared to the 67-72's so they're pretty undersized. Even with 4" drop springs in the rear and 2" of drop in the front, I still have loads of room for wheels & tires. The pictures make it look worse than it is, but still something to deal with.