Fleetline's widebed - keep it wide or not?

[louisvr45]

Hi,

Im thinking should I keep the wide bed and just replace & repair the wide bed floor?

or should I modify all the dropsides to fit the std split single cab loadbay?

[Blitzkrieg]

Personally I feel that widebeds look ugly and industrial.

Convert to the German spec SC gates which look waaaay cleaner and smoother

[lowlight]

Std german looks nicer, but fleetline wide bed more original. At the end depends what u like.

[Sambabus]

widebeds are super rare,why have an ordinary sc and not something special?

[fig]

I say keep the original wide bed. If you want to ditch it, rather use regular SC gates than cutting down the wide bed gates. There are people on these forums who would buy a restorable wide-bed set-up in a flash to put their own Fleetline SCs back to original..

The wide-bed bakkies are super rare and deserve preservation.

[MINCE]

if it came out like that, keep it like that

[louisvr45]

If one decide to put org dropsides from germen spec, you got to close the hole for the snorkle and finish of the lip that the vertical plate makes on the body outside (just behinde the 2 doors).

Is here any one that did a restoration to a widebed before?
should one cut the loadbed side sections and replace it with same size bended steel or use sq tubing?

[Bugger]

I`d say keep it wide bed as they re not dime a dozen and one day you will be pleased you kept it wide

[retrovan]

Keep it the original....

If YOU do not like it, think about swapping someone for the SC that you like more.....

[jolas]

They might look ugly or wierd or industrial or whatever, but thats the whole attraction (for some people).

If you ditch it, you can forget about adapting the present dropgates, because THEN it will look fckn ridiculous Louis. You need to find a set of reasonable condition German spec dropgates first (from a split, the gates from a bay will have to be shortened. Those will prove hard to find, unless
you already have a set?)

As you know there are only 4 bolts holding the widebed down, so, it is pretty easy to take off and put on again, very easy with 2 people. If you have German dropgates, sure take it off, but keep it somewhere safe, don't butcher it. One day when you part with the pick-up, the new owner will still have the option of making it original again.

As far as repairing it goes, I say do what you have to do to make it practical and useable, use squarebar if you must, try keep it looking original from the outside at least. We must just preserve these vehicles, use them and have fun with them while we are lucky enough to own them.

[riaanj]

widebeds are super rare,why have an ordinary sc and not something special?

I agree 100%

[louisvr45]

Jolas I dont have german spec dropgates. I saw you lose out on 0.719 sq m loading aria if you switch over to the german spec dropgates. Plus you cant reverse on an uphill that causes wheelspin.
theres not much fuel consumtion diffrence driving with and without the loadbay. I used to get 8.2 vs 8.5 km/l hiway.

[jolas]

Eish ! Best to keep that wide bed then ......

Is it very vrot ?

[louisvr45]

the worse is the loadbed it self that got holes is here and there then the on corner is badly rusted. for a metre a side. then where the load bed bend over to the sides this is where it rusted on the out side right through. and the inside corner section. ( it makes a angle iron shape with a lip on each side. eg 10 horizon(attach to overbend on side),25 up,25 right, and 10 up(attache to loadbay sheeting). this is how its used to be.

Ive turned it around and bend / try to bend all sheeting back.

The other thing is the rear dropdown got a pressed in vw badge

[jolas]

Perhaps you should take some photos, it will be easier to comprehend. The embossed VW emblem on the tailgate is correct together with the "Fleetline" name underneath the emblem.