Pilothouse Pickup Bed Reflooring - part 1

[grey beard]

Pilothouse Pickup Box Reflooring

Decisions

When you replace the wood floor in your Pilothouse pickup, several decisions must be made at the onset. First, you must decide how you want the completed floor project to look. With the advent of bed hardware reproduction, some fancy cabinet work has emerged. Floor boards are available ready made with all holes drilled and cut to the correct dimensions. This work can easily be done yourself with a cost savings of more than two hundred dollars at this writing, if you are willing to do a little measuring and cutting. You will need only an electric hand saw and a drill to accomplish this job.

Some folks prefer to have the metal strips between each floor board recessed to a depth that puts the strips flush with the wood top surface. Some also countersink the six frame attachment bolt heads so their tops are flush with the top of the boards. None of this is original nor necessary. If you choose to relieve the boards either for the strips or for the six carriage bolts, these operations must be done before you begin any installation work. With my own bed project, I just drilled holes for the attaching bolts and left the strips sit above the wood surface to act as rub rails on the floor.

You can purchase all your wood parts precut and drilled, so that only the installation is left to be done. If you buy your own wood, the best quality lumber to use is white oak, but this is not easy to find. Most commercial bed shops sell flooring in red oak or pine, but white oak is superior to the others. Bed attaching hardware can be purchased from your hardware locally for an added savings, with the exception of the six 3-inch flat washers used on the bed-to-chassis attaching bolts. These are specially made for this application.

Finally, wood finish decisions need to be made while the boards are still loose. Mar-K’s own web site carries some excellent information on this subject. Many people favor stained and varnished oak or pine floor boards. This is your truck, so it’s also your decision. Some like the “show” look, with polished stainless strips and bolts and varnished and stained wood. This is a wide departure from the original Dodge bed floors, which were painted black.

Mar-K has done some interesting tests on various varnished and painted finishes. Check their web site for in-depth information on this subject. Personally, I have never seen a natural wood finish on a pickup bed that did not eventually darken and “ugly out” over time. I painted mine black primer and enamel – both the wood and the strips.

Whatever finish you choose to use, the boards need to be finished before they are assembled into the box. Pay special attention to end grain and drilled holes when you apply your paint or varnish. Of course you will want the same finish on the bottom as you put on top. Even though they will not show, finish the individual board edges, too.

The Job At Hand

Dodge Pilothouse pickup boxes are much like stepside pickup beds produced by other marques. Their design and construction are not much different from other beds in the industry from the same time period, with just a few exceptions.

Firstly, the weight of the entire metal box – sides, front and tailgate – rests on the two angle strips on each side of the bed. These angle strips sit on and bolt to the two outside floor boards inside the bed. The exception to this statement is that the very last inch of the back of each floor board is bolted to a cross sill just inside the tailgate, which also helps support the metal bed box to some extent.

These same two outer floor boards are also the attaching point for the six ½-inch bolts that hold the entire bed assembly onto the frame proper. So it is that when a Pilothouse bed wood floor fails, it is usually the two outermost boards that wear out first, since they both support the full weight of the bed sides and also secure the whole bed unit to the vehicle chassis. These two boards are also the only floor wood to have holes drilled in them.

Measuring and Cutting

What you must understand at this point is that with the old wood out of the bed, the metal box assembly is completely loose and unattached except for the running boards-to-fender bolts and tail lamp wires. The box assembly can be moved sideways or front and back, and up and down several inches, but must be positioned accurately on the truck frame or it will be installed crooked. There is a lot of room for error here.

You will need some scrap lumber or cribbing to prop up the four corners of the box. (You can also use cement blocks if they are available.) With the metal box sitting above the frame and propped in an approximate position – the box sides are completely loose and independent of the chassis at this point – measure to be certain the box is centered on the frame. Be careful to check the front-to-back measurement between the cab and bulkhead. There should be about one inch of space between the two body panels. Also make sure the box is centered side-to-side. This is critical for proper bed-to-frame alignment.

Pick the Best Boards

Six boards are used on Dodge stepside floors. Look your bed lumber over carefully. Select the best side of each board for the top and mark each top side selected with a “T” for this purpose. The two outer boards need to be cut narrower than the four center floor boards. I tried to find the two very best boards to use for the outer pair, since these are the only ones that get holes drilled in them and since they support the entire weight of the metal box sides.

Marking the Holes

There will be three holes drilled in each of these two outer boards for frame attachment points, and seven holes drilled in each board for metal angle strips on the outer edges. If your old bed floor wood is too far gone to use for patterns, some method must be found to align these hole positions with the frame holes, so they can be drilled accurately.

The method I used and suggest to others is this: with the four loose bed crossmembers sitting in place on the fame, drop the six 1/2 –inch diameter bolts through the crossmember and frame holes. Secure these six bolts loosely with nuts, so they cannot move around or get knocked off.

The second crossmember from the rear just sits on the frame and supports the board flooring. It is not bolted to the frame, even though holes are drilled in the frame at this point. Do use rubber pads underneath this and all other crossmembers. When you see a finished bed floor with eight large carriage bolts instead if six, you are seeing a job where someone added two extra bolts not used by the factory.

Carefully center the metal box on the frame. Now place one of the outer floor boards on top of the crossmembers and against one box side, on top of the carriage bolts. Carefully check that the board is positioned against the front bulkhead sheetmetal and ends at the right spot inside the tailgate at the back. With the board held carefully against the box side, smack it with a dead blow hammer just above each crossmember. The objective here is to get an impression on the board surface immediately above each of the three carriage bolt heads that are sitting in the frame attaching holes. These impression marks made in the boards will serve as your drill marks. Hit the board hard enough to make a mark on the wood from the bolt heads, but not hard enough to crack the lumber. (Ask me how I know . . . .)

Next, take one of the two metal angle strips and lay it on top of the outer board. Clamp the angle in place with the outer edge aligned with the board edge and mark seven 3/8-inch holes for the angle attaching bolts.