Bed cover- hard shell or soft

[F6866]

Take a look at checkerpro.com and see if you find something that you like.

[cudaboy]

Personally I like the homemade one on the Ranger. Another variation on that would be to use 1 1/2" aluminum stock to build the frame and let the lip lay on top of the bed. Then you could put some self adhesive (stickyback) foam insulation to help seal out the dust and rain. Here's my attempt at poor boy's computer generated graphics. AKA windows paint.

[Nuthinbutmopar]

I made a flat hardshell cover out of all aluminum. Started by building a frame out of 1" square stock to sit inside the bed, with 3 crossmembers. Cut 6 pieces of 1" angle and riveted them on the inside of the bed to support the frame. Set the frame on the supports and used 4 2" pieces of angle riveted to th inside of the frame to "lock" the frame to the support angles. Picked up 2 sheets of .050" x 49" x 102" trailer siding from the local semi trailer repair shop and cut it down to 2" wider than the bed, with the seam on the center support bar. Borrowed an applicator from my local body shop and glued the sheet onto the frame to avoid deforming it if it was welded. Covered the rails, set it on, marked it from the inside, and used a router to trim the sheet to 1/8" gap on the sides and 1/2" overhang on the ends. Had it painted, and now all of the Chebby and Furd guys want to talk to me about itinstead of the truck. It locks in place with the gate up and doesn't rattle at all; drop the gate and slide it back 2" to tilt and prop it up. I'll try to get some pix in the next week or so...

[Hewy]

i am tagging on to this thread to see if anyone links up anything - i am interested in something similar but not quite ready yet.

Tagging ? Is that some sort of notification to you when activity occurs on a thread ?
How do you trigger that ?
I belong to another forum that sends a message when I "subscribe" to a thread.
Save a lot of scanning old posts.

[sledgehammer]

i've never owned a sweptline, yet, but here's a couple of pics of a tonneau cover from checkerpro. very light weight. it fit like the pic that "cudaboy" drew out and was fiberglass across the rest. i really liked it and when i do find a sweptline (66 shortbed) i will get one of these for it. i ordered this back in '02 and no longer own this pickup. i think you would have to give them the dimensions of the bed but not sure. been lookin at this website since '01, i think it was actually a different site that shut down and then went to this site. anyhow i really like this site, just don't usually log in or keep up enough however. here's a couple pics (not the best however)to let you know what it looks like

[cudaboy]

NICE TRUCK ! I had a 85 model that I bought new, that was trimed out just like that. It was a gunmetal blue, and I had the square tube grill , a set of square tube chrome bedrails and a bedcover on it. I wish I had that one back.