Factory bed wood

[custom10nut]

What type of wood was used from the factory for the bed wood in our trucks?
Is it a sort of Pine?
I know people use just about every kind of wood you could think of, but I want to cut and mill my own, for no other Eason than I can say "I did it myself".
I'm looking at yellow pine, soaked down with Boiled Linseed Oil.
I love the way it looks as it ages, and it would outlive me in the long run. My original bed has lasted 46+ years and still looks decent, but I'm fixin to relocate my gas tank, and move on to finishing the body work, so it's time to replace the wood.

[LongBox]

I cannot answer your question, but the individual boards in the wood bed in the 71 longbed I owned back in the day curled. The climate where I lived was fairly hot and dry. I guess my point is that either they chose the wrong species of wood, or else they did not treat and finish it correctly.

[custom10nut]

Mine became a mushroom farm underneath. When I bought the truck 24 years ago, the wood was solid, so I thought I was doing a good thing by treating it with marine grade varnish. Bad. The top stayed nice, but it rotted from the bottom.
I figure that soaking the boards in the BLO, that they'll be permeated and moisture won't have a chance to get in.
I'm also looking into adding a green dye to the BLO, since my truck color is Medium Olive, o mimic the way they did it from the factory(when they painted the wood and strips body color).

[davepl]

I think it was pine, but am not 100% sure. I do know they were painted body color, not stained and varnished like we all do these days!

[custom10nut]

I thought so.
I thought about painting the wood body color, but I would also like have some of the woodgrain visible

[old51sedan]

I believe the wood was pine from the factory, it along with the strips were all painted the same color as the body. If you get an original Boucher with a picture of a wood box you can see it.

[Tom Vogel]

If it was pine, it was the hardest clear pine I ever saw.

[OregonNed]

Southern Yellow Pine, I believe?

[CaptRMW]

Originally pine but if you treat yours with Coppertox you will have your green color and the best wood preservative on the planet.

[BLAZERMAN]

Bed wood and strips were painted black up until 1967, 68 and after were painted body color.

[old51sedan]

I posted yesterday that they were pine & painted body color from the factory. I just bought a 69 step side this spring & the reason I wanted a 69 was because I had bought one new in the fall of 1968. It had a pine wood floor and the whole thing, strips and all were painted same as the truck. They may have been painted black before that, I don't know. The 69 I have now has the original floor (needs replaced) and it is painted same color as the body. Hope this helps.