Pine Wood Bed Question?

[69 COPO]

I am Getting ready to install a new wood bed in my restored truck. Does any one have pictures of Pine Wood stained. I'm sick of Oak and want something different, but don't want to spend a ton. Need some answers, or other ideas. Thanks

[Richard8971]

One thing to consider with using pine, it is a much softer wood than Oak but I can understand wanting to use something different.

I personally would love to see a hickory bed! I think when I get ready to redo mine, I will use hickory, I love the way it looks.

Don

[cdowns]

mahogoney softer than oak easier to work with great grain and alot more durable than pine and will hold up to moisture really well

[thirdstreettito]

I'd love to see a redwood bed on a black truck!

[Ricks1971]

Back when I had flat bed trailers I used apitong wood to refloor my trailer beds. It looks abit like mahogany,weathers well, and lasts along time. Its also reasonable priced and easy to work with.
http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/apitong.htm

[sameyrasmea72]

If you really want something different and far-out, piant the wood body color like the general did.

[Woz]

I went with 1 inch green treated wood. I had to run it through a table saw to get it to the correct dimensions etc... I used the info available on gmcpauls.com and I am happy with it.

[Richard8971]

Holy smokes! I found this web site that makes all kinds of bed woods for our trucks. Some of the packages were close to 2 grand! The birds-eye maple is beautiful as well as the canary wood.

check it out....

http://www.bedwoodandparts.com/Content/Home.aspx

Don

[Boog]

You can use pine wood for your bed floor. I bought 1bys and cut my own but instead of staining it I painted it black. It was a DD so I needed durability mainly. It held up real well. You could buy C grade yellow pine and it be clear of all knots and such and that might stain up real nice.

[R.L.]

Originally Posted by Woz

I went with 1 inch green treated wood. I had to run it through a table saw to get it to the correct dimensions etc... I used the info available on gmcpauls.com and I am happy with it.

I like that on your green truck, a common durable affordable wood thats easy to replace ,smart.

[R.L.]

Originally Posted by Richard8971

Holy smokes! I found this web site that makes all kinds of bed woods for our trucks. Some of the packages were close to 2 grand! The birds-eye maple is beautiful as well as the canary wood.

check it out....

http://www.bedwoodandparts.com/Content/Home.aspx

Don

I like the cypress.

[caminokid]

Originally Posted by Richard8971

Holy smokes! I found this web site that makes all kinds of bed woods for our trucks. Some of the packages were close to 2 grand! The birds-eye maple is beautiful as well as the canary wood.

check it out....

http://www.bedwoodandparts.com/Content/Home.aspx

Don

I want to build a truck...I want to get my truck done. But OMG! I was looking at some of the wood...3000.00??? I want to buy the wood not have to get a loan to do it.

I think if I was to get any wood from there.. it would be the red oak at 399.00

[68shortstep]

Here's a too-long tale, but good advice: Regardless of whatever kind of wood you use, a tip from an old deck-builder from way-back. I had a construction company for many years, and we built literally hundreds of decks. An old-timer told me this one, and it definitely is true:

"If you want the wood to last the longest time possible, meaning rot-away the slowest, always-always-always lay the boards down onto the deck (to the weather) bark side up."

If you look at the tree growth-rings on the end of most any board, you will see the concentric rings of annual growth of the tree that the board was cut from. They look like a big letter "C" usually.

Bark-side of the tree up (the C facing down), then the rain water that falls onto the board will naturally drain off the wood. Bark side down, & the board tends to cup just a bit, and it will hold water, & thus will rot sooner, & probably will split first, too. This is true even of the 5-quarter treated wood like WOZ is using, & which is probably the most-common decking-surface wood used everywhere. Some boards don't have the full C rings on them, being cut more on a bias from the tree during sawing, but there's always enough tree growth ring on there to tell which is which.

Look at the photos above, that WOZ posted above (not pointing a finger, WOZ, but it's a great example): in the first photo, all of the first four boards from right-to-left that are cut & getting ready to be laid, are wrong (upside down from how they should be - they are bark side down). If you look at the next photo below that one, right below the beer-bottle, that bark side down board has cracked already, just from starting the drying-out process from the wet treatment solution, after it was installed.

If you want to prove this "bark side" thing to yourself, walk outside on a deck about ten minutes after a rain shower & look at which boards are dry, & which ones are holding water. Then look at the ends of the board. The bark side up boards will have drained, & are beginning to dry out. The bark side down ones will have a puddle standing on them, having cupped, & holding water atop themselves. In a few years, those boards will have to be replaced, because they'll be the first to crack & rot.

[lax54650]

i had wondered about using composit deck material? cats and works like wood would last forever!! i wonder if anyone has done it? i sm probsbly at least a year away from that stage in my project.

[dfosh]

The treated wood will shrink as the treatment dries out . I helped a friend do a bed in a 50 Ford .He bought some rough dried lumber thicker,longer and wider than he needed . He then had it sized and run through a plainer used a router to fit the metal strips . we then sanded the wood wiped it down and put 10 coats of marine urethane sealer .Sanding between each coat ,had to let it dry atleast 24 hrs between coats . had about 100 bucks and his labor in it.Sorrry this was so long.

[R.L.]

Originally Posted by 68shortstep

Here's a too-long tale, but good advice: Regardless of whatever kind of wood you use, a tip from an old deck-builder from way-back.

"If you want the wood to last the longest time possible, meaning rot-away the slowest, always-always-always lay the boards down onto the deck (to the weather) bark side up."

If you want to prove this "bark side" thing to yourself, walk outside on a deck about ten minutes after a rain shower & look at which boards are dry, & which ones are holding water. Then look at the ends of the board. The bark side up boards will have drained, & are beginning to dry out. The bark side down ones will have a puddle standing on them, having cupped, & holding water atop themselves. In a few years, those boards will have to be replaced, because they'll be the first to crack & rot.

That makes perfect sence, learn somphin nu ever dey.

[woodwright]

Most of the woods they use to make those bed kits are available locally as lumber, for ALOT cheaper. The really expensive kits are marked up just for the wow factor. Go talk to a local cabinet builder, or sand and finish flooring contractor. They can probably point you to someplace like Edensaw Woods

R.L. Australian Cypess is a really neat wood, except is is very oily and extremely brittle. You can literally break a 1x4 over your knee with not much effort.

If any of you are interested in finding some exotic lumber, but need help finding any, let me know. Be glad to help.

[msgross]

I have NOS wood... pine I think and stained black...

I might do oak though...Mar-K has some decent deals when they offer 10% off...

also,don't assume that all oak is hard.. I put Red oak in my house and should have gone with a harder version...

[chipflyer]

I went with oak on mine and could not find a better price locally (or shipped for that matter) than Classic parts of America (formerly Chevy Duty) Picked it up myself, it was excellent quality, was cut perfectly and was I believe right around $280. I have a buddy that works at a local cabinet shop that thought he could get the wood cheaper but could not, he also checked with Lowes and home depot and found it was even higher.

Jeff

[5150.4.67]

Teak?