We certainly do hear that a lot. If by chance it’s true, is it a good thing or a bad thing? When our subject 1955 second-series Chevrolet rolled off the Oakland, California, assembly line, its current rebuilders hadn’t yet been born. Since we don’t know anyone who actually worked at the Oakland plant, we also don’t know how well bed panels may’ve fit together.

For the business end of a 1950s-era utility vehicle, let’s assume the factory focused on function over fitment. Now for our subject truck’s second time around, let’s attempt to tighten tolerances to better-meet the showtime standards of today.

Back when the old 1955 project first came to us, it came with a disassembled shortbed. Although the major components were there, they were badly beaten, as we’d expect the business end of any old work truck to be. To the overly optimistic, some parts of the original bed could’ve been considered repairable. If practicality counts, however, our customer’s money would be better spent on brand-new, reproduction steel.

Years ago, let’s say 30 or 40 or so, when Task Force trucks were belly-button-common and plentiful, who could’ve predicted that an entire bed could be built from aftermarket components? Today an entire truck can be built the same way, without an old beater to begin with at all.

For procurement of GM truck reproduction steel, builders do have choices. On this particular job we’re doing a fair amount of business with Premier Street Rod in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

OK, so why Premier? Well, first, they’re not just a source for needed parts, they’re at all times hands-on building Chevy trucks—reproduction cabs and all. Secondly, Lake Havasu feels like home and we don’t mind driving there to purchase parts the old-fashioned face-to-face way. Thirdly, we get our questions answered by true experts, as necessary as we go.

Just the other day, our painter (that’s yours truly) had questions for Isaac, the painter at Premier. Since every bit of the bed we’ll build was sourced through Premier, and since Isaac works with the same reproduction parts darn-near daily, I sort of figured he’d be the guy to ask.

Here, our initial notion was to build the bed on a sturdy rolling cart that we use routinely for bodies and cabs. The problem with that is, the 1955-1959–style GM Stepside beds are structurally dependent on four particular wooden planks. Without the outer perimeter planks, and the next two inboard planks in place for location, we’d likely never get the bed squared away. In addition, it would be more difficult to figure cross sill spacing on the cart.

For the dry-fitting job at hand, the best bed building fixture we have is the frame of the truck itself—and, well, there’s a problem with that notion, too. At the time of this typewriting, the project’s freshly painted cab is sitting in place on a finished rolling chassis. In 20/20 retrospect, we probably should’ve left the cab on its cart, safely out of the way as we go about building a bed. At any rate, paint-protective padding will be an absolute necessity here.

Assuming you’ve been with us, you likely know there have been a couple bed building tech stories in Classic Truck Performance recently. By the time this one goes to print, there will have been one more, but they’re all different types of trucks with different types of beds. This time around, we’ll focus specifically on the 1955-1959–style GM short Stepside bed.

While some bed building procedures are similar, they’re not all the same, and there’s generally more than one way to approach pert-near anything, anyway. Here as we (that’s my right hand, Mrs. Rotten, and I) undertake this reproduction bed construction, we’ll indeed be referring to the earlier CTP bed building tech stories. We’ll also be conferring with our preferred parts purveyors at Premier Street Rod.

On those notes, let’s open up some big old cardboard boxes for an overdue look inside. It’s finally time to pay some attention to this marathon project’s hind end.