coW52Dodge Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 I'm in the process of replacing my truck's bed, since it had totally rotted out. Last week I received some really high quality white oak and hardware: I'll have to rip it with width and cut it to length, along with cutting a rabbit into it. I guess I'll wait with the holes until I lay it on the bed. My wife, after walking around a car show a week or two back, wants me to stain it light. I was going to stain the wood black but who am I to argue with her? With the aid of some lumber and other redneck best engineering practices, I wrestled the bed off my truck last weekend: I want to paint the frame and some of the bottom of the bed with rustbullet - that's always served me well for protection. In the process, I did find two cracks in the frame, right behind the cab, where the bed's cross member rests. There's a notch to accept a frame cross member that must have slowly tore. Had they radiused the notch, it wouldn't have been a problem, I suspect. That will be fixed before the bed goes back on. It must have had an issue at one time because someone patched that section of the frame. It is straight and looks good, though, so will leave that alone. In the process of drilling them out, I found out that angle strips are attached with tons of spotwelds. My wife, always the voice of taste, talked me into using stainless steel bed strips - bling-bling. If it was up to me, they would have been painted black. Shiny metal looks too nice and thus out of place for an old farm truck, imo, but she's the boss, right? The supports frame that the bed lays on were also bent a bit so boxed them in - I would have replaced them but couldn't readily find a square steel tube of that size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 Here's a sample. White oak with no stain and 4 coats of clear poly for protection. Still looks this good 8 years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buds truck Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 you are a smart man, make the boss happy. Nothing on the 53 gets done without her approval. She informed me the day I brought that truck home it was now HERS. Seems only fair as I have the 49 Plymouth. Bud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted August 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 you are a smart man, make the boss happy. Nothing on the 53 gets done without her approval. She informed me the day I brought that truck home it was now HERS. Seems only fair as I have the 49 Plymouth. Bud Same here. A couple of weeks ago, she was nosing around the truck, commenting how bad the cab smelled. In the truck's defense, it lived on a farm for decades and its previous occupants, generations of field mice, had made quite a mess of the seat. After I mentioned that I tried cleaning it, She suggested I get it re-upholstered, which only needed to be said to me once: I got it^ back last Friday - she since commented how the truck has a nice new car smell. That looks great, Ed. I bought various stains and sealers and will soon be experimenting with the colors on some scraps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merle Coggins Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 When I assembled my bed I didn't use the long mounting bolts that go through the outer boards, like shown in Ed's photo. Instead I bolted the cross members to the frame with shorter 1/2" bolts. The wood is held down to the cross members via the strips, the bed sides sit on top of the outter boards and bolt down to the front and rear cross members, so it's not going anywhere. My bed is solidly attached without having the large headed mounting bolts showing from the top. Merle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario Loya B1B Posted August 27, 2009 Report Share Posted August 27, 2009 REM, Your progress looks great for just having the truck a few months. If you ever need to see my truck as reference I'm only a mile away. My bed is red oak with many many coats of poly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted August 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2009 REM,Your progress looks great for just having the truck a few months. If you ever need to see my truck as reference I'm only a mile away. My bed is red oak with many many coats of poly. Thanks Mario. Let's meet up some time soon, maybe grab some lunch. This weekend isn't that great for me but next weekend would definitely work. When I took my bed off, I found two stress cracks in the frame, one on each side, right behind the cab where the cross member mounts. It looked like an old crack, something that had been there for a while but figured it should be fixed up. My welder is too tiny so rolled it to a shop to get them to throw a fat bead on it. (It felt very illicit, rolling it around without the bed and thus without rear fenders, but luckily the cops ignored me.) The guy did it for $25 - whattadeal! I'm painting the rear of the frame with RustBullet over the little time I have over this weekend, putting the bed frame back on and start putting the wood on. I'm excited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merle Coggins Posted August 27, 2009 Report Share Posted August 27, 2009 My welder is too tiny so rolled it to a shop to get them to throw a fat bead on it. (It felt very illicit, rolling it around without the bed and thus without rear fenders, but luckily the cops ignored me.) I drove my truck around like this the weekend I first took it out of the shop. first "real" test drive, plus I needed to get it out so I had room to work on the bed panels. I just bolted up some lights to a piece of U bracket and attached it to the rear of the frame. I even had a cop follow me for a few blocks without incedent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted August 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2009 I drove my truck around like this the weekend I first took it out of the shop. first "real" test drive, plus I needed to get it out so I had room to work on the bed panels. I just bolted up some lights to a piece of U bracket and attached it to the rear of the frame. I even had a cop follow me for a few blocks without incedent. That's^ what I looked like, less the really nice green color your truck is sporting. Some cops can be sticklers so I was worried a little bit. Luckily, the shop is only a mile down the road from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pflaming Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 Those bed are too beautiful to haul anything in. WOW! I read the forum just to see the incredible work done by so many of you. Hope to get back to mine next spring. Got to feed two grand kids this winter, tough love, but I think we are winning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted August 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 Thus far, it has not been a difficult job. I'm sure yours will look just as good as everyone else's, once you get to it. I cut the wood today but am waiting for the Mar-K strips to arrive to gauge the rabbit. I'd like for them to stand slightly proud of the wood. Btw, if you don't mind cutting your own wood, I highly recommend this place: http://www.hardwoodboardsource.com/. Their boards are very high quality. White oak for a new floor from that place will cost you about $200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob_Koch Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 I had to drive out of California and almost to the Washington border get my white oak. Anything other than red oak around here cost a fortune. Since my truck bed will be "too pretty" to haul anything serious I'm also building a matching truck bed trailer to haul serious stuff in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted September 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Since the bed is off and I've been waiting for my bed strips, I rust-bulleted the frame and cobbled up a new muffler rear pipe. The bed and cab had been rubbing so it had some surface rust in the black area. For now, I just stabilized the rust and primered it. The side that faces the cab had some dents so thought I'd bump them out. Everything went just fine until this happened: It was a hammer from a cheap HF kit but it had been with me for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJs 1948 Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Sorry the metal bed strips did not work out for you. Got them back today. Here is how my bed turned out using cherry from a neighbor that runs a small sawmill on his farm. Restored the truck from the frame up so I decided to try and make the bed look nice. I don't know if this was the best way to finish the wood but I used Spar Polyurethane. Still hope to avoid being out in a rainstorm with the truck. My everyday vehicle is a pickup so I use that for work. I'll post some photos of my 48 truck on a thread soon when I can get some better shots. Good luck on your truck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted September 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 That looks beautiful, Jeff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Evans Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 It sure does! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Elder Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Love that blue! Is it Petty blue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pflaming Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 That blue is great! Post some pics of the entire truck. Great job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted September 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2009 Okay, I played hooky from work today and took the afternoon to cut the wood to width and length and machined a rabbit into the edges. The strips stand slightly proud of the wood surface. I'm not bolting anything together until it is stained and sealed and the bed's supports are back on the truck. Its starting to come together. The bed will look way too nice for the truck, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
48Dodger Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Wohoo! nice. 48D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted September 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Thanks! After looking at it a bit more, I'm wondering whether I should bolt the L shaped strips on each side of the wood bed to the bed sides. These Mar-K strips seem to want to float because they don't have holes on the side that's normally spot welded to the bed sides. If I drill holes and bolt them into the sides, would it benefit the stiffness of the bed or should I just leave it alone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Evans Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Spot welds would be the best. Bolts will show from the outside. I guess you could try it without any kind of attachment and see what happens but I think the spot welds do help in the rigidity of the whole box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted September 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Spot welds would be the best. Bolts will show from the outside. I guess you could try it without any kind of attachment and see what happens but I think the spot welds do help in the rigidity of the whole box. My originals were welded. My replacements are high polished stainless steel so welding them would mess them up, unfortunately. I'll follow your suggestion to see how they'll hold up, not attached to the sides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Elder Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 I know this sounds tacky but how about some sort of adhesive like liquid nails or the commercial glue where the neighbor sticks the hammer on the ceiling because the other guy is hammering in the morning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coW52Dodge Posted September 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 (edited) I know this sounds tacky but how about some sort of adhesive like liquid nails or the commercial glue where the neighbor sticks the hammer on the ceiling because the other guy is hammering in the morning? Not sure if I want to glue the actual irons because, should it ever need to come apart, it will be a nightmare. Your glue idea (epoxy?) could maybe work in holding studs to the bed sides, drill a hole in the angle irons and hold them in place with a washer and nut. Of course, those studs could also be migged in but that will very likely mess my paint on the outside up. Edited September 11, 2009 by coW52Dodge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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