wood alternatives for stepside

[nate68]

In the next few months I'm going to start work on the bed. I want to do something other than the wood strips and am looking for ideas.

[FleetsidePaul]

Why not wood it's cool?

[nate68]

personal preference. I want to do something custom

[FleetsidePaul]

I would think some kind of polished metal but it might get expensive.

[woodwright]

I was gonna do a polished aluminum diamond plate one a while back. I'm not crazy about the stock wood and metal strip look either. but one option I'm playing with is useing an exotic wood tight together with no metal strips like a hardwood floor.

[Test Pilot]

One thing I thought about was using Trex. For those that aren't familiar with it, it is a man made synthetic wood. Here is the mfg's website and it can be purchased at Lowes http://www.trex.com/brasilia/s
I wanted it for the rot resistance.

Now that complete bed floors are available from even the later model trucks, I may hold out until those prices come down a bit and make it look like an oe steel floor would have looked.

Good luck, please share what route you take.

[special-K]

When I built my pro-street`70 Stepside I used a steel Fleetside floor.

[cdowns]

i had a ford stepper that i did a sheet of 1/8inch aluminium and engine turned the surface

[OARNGESI]

I want to cut a metal floor down then rhino line the floor

[OARNGESI]

There was also a truck recently on ebay that used plexiglass with polished strips

[420am]

colored plexi might look cool as well.

I'm kind of thinking about doing wood that isn't as thick as the original, leaving room to put smoked plexi on top of it. That way It's easy to replace the plexi if I want.

[68C15]

I have some real nice clean, clear maple for mine. I wanted mahogany but the price is a little high.

[2tons of fun]

Originally Posted by Test Pilot

One thing I thought about was using Trex. For those that aren't familiar with it, it is a man made synthetic wood. Here is the mfg's website and it can be purchased at Lowes http://www.trex.com/brasilia/s
I wanted it for the rot resistance.

Now that complete bed floors are available from even the later model trucks, I may hold out until those prices come down a bit and make it look like an oe steel floor would have looked.

Good luck, please share what route you take.

trex is very heavy, very expensive and fades very fast.

[Dingfodgy]

Originally Posted by woodwright

I was gonna do a polished aluminum diamond plate one a while back. I'm not crazy about the stock wood and metal strip look either. but one option I'm playing with is useing an exotic wood tight together with no metal strips like a hardwood floor.

The purpose of the steel strips is to hold the wood to the cross-sills, which are attached to the frame- they're kinda necessary to tie the whole bed together.
Now in order to get your "strip-less" floor you would still need to find a way to attach it to the cross-supports. Maybe you could mill a "t-slot" in the backside of the boards and use hidden T-Bolts....IDK.

[woodwright]

or screw it from the bottom.

[Sinisterspeed]

I saw one done with plexiglass at our local swap meet last year. I might even have a picture around here somewhere of it. It was cool. Just depends on what your going to use the truck for.

If your going to drive it much, I wouldn't want to try to fight the road grime and plexiglass. My plan on my 57 is to do like special-K did and do a steel fleetside floor and just line-x it. (cause im building a daily driver out of it) Im tired of vehicle that just suck up money and all i can do with em afterward is look at them for fear of ruining so much i had invested.

[unclewatts]

How about strips of 1/4" fiberglass sheeting? It's durable and light.

[stueber68]

Originally Posted by special-K

When I built my pro-street`70 Stepside I used a steel Fleetside floor.

This is what I am doing now. Doing what I can to make it look as factory as possible.