Bed floor replacement options
 

Okay, looking for some options besides replacing the entire bed on my '71 lwb. The sides and the front and tailgate are in pretty decent shape and I can save those, the problem is the floor of the bed is pretty rusty, with some holes, along with the cross braces under the bed are almost gone in some spots. What's involved in replacing the steel bed with a wood bed, or what's the best way to replace the bed floor with a new steel one?

Any and all ideas welcomed!

I'm not real sure how to go about replacing the steel floor with a wood floor, i think the stringers and stuff is all different, but replacement panels are available for the steel floors.

One of the guys on here was saying something about someone had a SS plate cut for the bottom of their bed. I'd bet you'd just have to remove the old bottom piece and attach the new piece by lowering the sides and all that down onto it Although drilling trhough SS could be a major pain in the arse it would be stronger then heck and look sharp. maybe diamond plate for some good traction too? i dunno just some thoughts. I'm sure some vendor out there has replacement bed floors dont they?

I dont think anyone makes a complete floor but you can get patch panels from WES or PAUL and everything is held together by bolts so takin it apart wont be too hard not sure about the cross sills though pretty sure those are welded on:bowtie:

I bought an entire rust free bed, disassembled it and POR-15ed it. I am in the process of reassembly. My bedsides were good but when I disassembled my old bed and tried to pick it up by both ends it folded up like a cheap lawn chair. So, I figure I will just sell the good bedsides off the other bed when I am done. If you can trust whats under the floor, ie the supports, you could just have two sheets of diamond plate steel cut and weld it in. That's what I thought about doing.

I know around here, you can just go to the auto ranch and buy the corrogated bed floor out of any box they have. They cut it out with the torch and you just have to trim it up and weld it into your box. Just an idea for ya.

If I were you, I'd buy a bed with the best floor possible, then take both apart, pick out the best of each piece for your truck, then part out the rest. I did this with a couple of trucks and made some money plus got some seriously nice parts.

i had to go find a another bed floor that was good shape. i think that is the easiest way considering all the cross members under the bed floor you would have to remove and replace on the patch panels.

Thanks for the suggestions! I really like the look of wood beds, but kind of impractical for me. I'll probably roll it to Nebraska and either put in some diamond plate or some SS at a relatives welding shop. That way we can fabricate new cross sills and roll pan if we need to.