Replacing my Bed Wood
 

“Down into the Rabbit Hole”
I’m finally in a place that I can finally start finishing my truck.
I’ve been collecting all the pieces needed for what seems like FOR EVER.
A few years ago, I purchased Dimensional Southern Yellow Pine boards for a local Mill, and using schematic diagram from GMC Paul, I cut and routed the grooves myself. (I have all the woodworking tools required for the task)
Then I mixed up my own stain color, to match the wood grain inside the cab.
Not wanting to go the Urethane Finish route, I applied two heavy coats of Boiled Linseed Oil as a finish.
Prior to putting the BLO on, I put the boards out in the sun, so that the oil would penetrate better.
Today I laid it all in the bed to mock fit it, and took this picture.
I’ll take more as I go.
I’m all ears for any tips or techniques that I need to use while changing out the wood.
Thanks in advance

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

All I can say the the wood looks fantastic.

I'm an idiot and drilled holes in my bed boards for a Ford in the wrong place(long long story), so now there are two extra "drain" holes in my pickup bed(red oak). :)

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

If it bothers you, you could cut dowels from a scrap of oak and plug them.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milescra...5340/203618866

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

Thanks for the kudos.
Believe it or not, I thought about that. I had a habit of “Charging forward without thinking about the outcome”, but I decided to get all the old wood out, get everything cleaned and prepped, THEN put the new boards in place to Mark/Drill the holes.
I planned on painting the metal Bed Strips “Body Color”and the leave the bolts shiny, but now I’m thinking it’ll look better if I paint them too.:smoke:

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

Looks amazing. I'd paint the bolt heads too!

It does not appear you replaced any of the cross sills, but a nice feature of the Mar-K replacement cross sills is they have a square hole where the carriage bolts that hold down the bed go.

What you do is put the carriage bolts into the cross sills and rout out the wood on the bottom to cover the head. You could easily duplicate this in the factory cross sills with a small tack weld to hold the bolts from spinning. That way you don't have to mess with making the recess for the washers and drilling through the wood.

It makes for a clean look.

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

They look nice, when I did mine I decided to not have the bolts showing so I bolted mine to the cross rails from the bottom, just gives it a little cleaner look.

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

I bought the pre-made kit from Mar K, so the mounting bolt holes were already there and I just went with them. Only tip I have is to lay it out multiple times until you are happy with everything. I also did the gas tank relocation so had to allow for the fuel fill.

In retrospect, I wish I had gone a little less on the wood finish as now I don't really want to put much in the bed. When the truck gets fully painted I may elect to go another route. Currently, the bed is just in epoxy primer while I chose a final color for the truck.

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

Yeah, I’ve pretty much made the Command Decision to paint the bolt heads.
I’m going to look into the”Hidden mount bolt” setup though, after seeing the pictures, I like the look.

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

Here you go. I did a write up a few years ago.

https://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vbo...d.php?t=712823


Have fun!

j

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

I also relocated my tank to the rear as well, this is a picture of the fuel fill.

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

NIce, when mine gets torn down for final bodywork and paint I am seriously considering moving the fuel fill to another location.

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

Thank you Jeffahart for the thread, and also a shoutout to all the others who posted their knowledge. :metal:

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

Way back when I did my wood bed I had the bed standing on the front panel it made for easy r&r of the wood..

Re: Replacing my Bed Wood
 

So THAT'S what those tools are for, never knew that. Thanks for the link.

That's how I did mine! Made all work much easier. But my bed was/is very beat up and I was doing a rough/shade-tree resto so I didn't care if it messed the bed up putting it on one end.