anyone made a steel bed floor?

[BB70c10]

im shortening my lwb and am thinking about making a steel bed floor.was wondering if anyones done it and whats involved.i've already torched the old bed floor(it was beat up and rusty).can i just use the supports under old bed to mount the new floor to or do i need to weld the old floor back together and mount the new floor to it for more support.if so, can i just por the old bed.have no clue??.going for pro-steet look so a smooth bed wouldnt bother me.would appreciate any advice and pics if you have any before i commit

[phase_one]

I have a short bed that I sort of replaced the floor with. My floor was not in very good shape. I bought two 4x8 sheet of diamond checkered steel. I wanted aluminum for reduced weight but it was waaay more than I was going to spend. The two sheets were placed side by side over the old floor. This was done while the entire bed was in pieces. With a nibbler all material that was not in the shape of the orginal floor was removed. Expect to use plenty drill bits to drill all the holes in the new steel floor. I placed the two sheets which are now cut over the old bed floor and reasembled the entire bed. Once this was done the two sheets were welded together. I can get pictures for later. My truck is still under construction ( front clip) etc are laying in the bed right now. I also have a hole cut in the floor to fill the tank up after that relocation. I haven't decided where or how I will run the gas filler line and I want to weld in some angle iron to make dividers like in the bed of modern pick ups. After all is complete I plan on spaying a liner on the finished bed. I did cover the orginal bed floor in por 15 and then painted it by hand with oil based enamel paint before it was covered. Hope this helps. This is what I did with the resources I had. I'm sure it could be done a different or more efficient way.

[BB70c10]

thanks man,that helps alot.looking forward to the pictures.i know exactly what you mean by being done differently or more efficiently.when i was cutting the bed,i cut the floor with no intention of reusing it.but now it sounds like im going to have weld the old floor back together to mount the new floor.that means alot more work for myself for not thinking ahead(i actually cut it with a torch).im actually doing a build thread on here documenting all my mistakes from not thinking ahead so this should fit right in.thanks again for the info.