cheap wood floor replacement

[xshadow]

What have you guys used in your wood bed floor untill you get around to buying the wood floor boards? I only have a few boards left and I'm planning on using some plywood until I get the funds to buy a wood kit.

[Rakort]

got any woodworking skills/tools? use what ever you can find and craft the profile. I'm not sure what wood I'm going to use yet, but I was going to avoid buying the kit other than the metal strips and the bolts. I was thinking about going to a local saw mill and maybe buying some decent douglas fur. Should work out pretty well and in the rough wouldn't be too expensive.

[BCOWANWHEELS]

my neighbor makes some of the nicest wood bed floors i,ve ever seen.and great prices too.
robert noe
1 423 239 4200

[sleepyboy]

P.O. used plywood. With a $25 sheet and a $5.00 paint/stain, you are in business..Oh, and some time/muscle, and a 12 pack...

[Brock]

I'm sure you know this if your even thinking about making your own bed-wood, but be sure its cured or it'll shrink and twist on ya.

Went to a local body shop to get my nephews stockcar frame straightened and the guy was using wood blocks he had the sawmill cut to exactly 8", they had been sitting outside and they weren't 8" thick anymore...one end was 8 3/8 and the other was 8 1/8. Hard to get a frame level when your starting out a quarter inch off.

As far as bed wood...around here (KY) Lowes has a pretty good selection of furniture grade oak and a couple others that would look great. Mine's got a 3/16 inch sheet of steel over it right now but the rails are still there under it. I'm gonna take the metal off and clean up the rails, paint them, scrap the rotten wood and go from there.

My advice would be to find one of these old timers that has a wood shop and see if he has any wood you could buy or look in the show-n-tell, thrifty nickel, pennypincher...whatever for people selling wood.

[wibilly]

t did a buddys 67 long box with red oak i got at a local sawmill that saws only hardwoods. i had it surfaced on 3 sides ,riped it to width surfaced the 4 side and cut the rabits it cost less than $50 ind i had 1 extra 8"x8' board left. and yess it was kiln dried. when i get around to doing mine i will use walnut or black ash somthing besides oak every one uses that.

[68shortstep]

Super cheap: Free.

Advantech house subfloor - got an edge-damaged leftover sheet from ahomebuilder friend, cut to fit, slipped in under the side of bed edge strips, & bolted down with new carriage bolts.

Out in the weather 24/7/365 for more than three years now, and it's just starting to show some flaking-off delamination of the wood pieces.

Tough stuff. Strong & weather resistant. Not pretty, but cheap.

I'll bet if I'd oiled or treated it with Thompson's water seal or something, it would have been good for many years.

When I'm ready for a full tear-down, then maybe it'll be time for something good. 'Til then -- "Hey, it's a driver."

Here's a photo from a house job site:

[OldCreek]

Plywood.. cheap. Marine grade plywood.... almost as cheap and probably more durable.

[Dingfodgy]

We have a "House Parts" reclamation place up here that removes anything salvageable from old houses that are being remodeled or demoed and resells it. Well as ya'll know CVG Doug Fir was king up here in the northwest back in the day, so alot of the big door and window casings were made with true 4/4 x 6,8 or 10 inch clear, vertical grain lumber. I drop buy every few weeks to see if they have anything that will work. So far I've collected a couple 10' boards. I have access to a planer and own a table saw w/ dado , jointer and router- so slowly I'm collecting the wood pieces and will someday have a bed made of reclaimed (60+ year old) straight grained Fir lumber....should look awesome!

In the meantime I have 3/4 plywood screwed to the remaining pieces of wood in my factory bed.

[dh81k30]

Way back when I replaced the wood floor in my '72, I was working with a construction company that was doing a major house remodel. One of the things that had to be removed was a large P.T. deck. I got to use some of the 2 x 6 and 2 x 8 flooring off that deck. I just had to be careful all the nails were out and make some extra dadoes across the bottoms so that the boards would sit low enough on the rails. I only had to pay for the hardware and metal strips I used. The sides were redone shortly thereafter but with new materials.

[O'l Buck]

Mine's plywood right now, but there is a guy around here locally that shows a 56 or so International short step that he refinished an old chunk of bowling lane and laid in the bed floor. He's got about a 2" step above the tailgate, but is sure is purty...I've got an old table here in the barn that's made from a bowling lane, I was thinking about doing that with mine just for the weight in the back if nothing else.

[Gray Ghost]

Doug Fir will make a great bedwood. It's very tight grained and hard as a rock. Defintely seal it with oil stain....preferably outdoor deck and fence stain.

I am going to use a Brazilian hardwood on mine and Southern Yellow Pine on a friend's truck.

[Longhorn Man]

plywood here, heavily soaked with oil on the bottom thanks to a leaky front main (yes, clear to the back on a friggen longhorn) and a coat of rustolium on top... been in for 1 1/2 years or so and holding up great.

[sam_wright88]

my first truck was a 78 step with wood floor. po had a piece of ply over the old rotted bed. i salvaged the strips cleand and painted them with rustoleum spray on bed liner and got a sheet of marine ply. and a nice deep stain and gloss lacquer. then just drilled holed for the strips and did an overlay type effect came out great for around 40-50$ was my daily driver during and after highscool i was always throwing my bikes in back. held up well.

[Ackattack]

pressure treated 3/4" plywood here, and flat steel strips to hold it down.

When I got the truck, my foot literally went through the floor when I was cleaning it out.

[Shyguy]

When I bought my '67 lwb stepper it had a sheet of metal diamond plate tacked in over the old wood. I think the diamond plate was right at 1/8 inch.

When we build the '67 swb stepper (made of various years) I am not sure what I am going to use for the bed floor. The truck will not be a show truck, just a real nice daily driver that at times will be used as a truck.

It will be a while until I have to decide since we just started working on the truck.

[DorianB]

2 1x4s, 4 1x8, 2 1x6 and yer all set
(For a stepside)

You only have to rip the two 1x4s and the others just slide in with no issues.
roughly $20 at any home improvement store.

[Dano69c10]

Runnin with no wood (floor). I still love to look at the chassis and driveline everytime I walk by.

[gferris5]

crazy ideas: What about using old pallet wood? You would obviously have to do a ton of work to the wood, including creating joints to create the length, and sand and stain and stuff....

okay now that I've typed it it doesn't sound so good, but imagine the hippy credit you'd get for using a recycled source? okay who cares about hippies, but it would be free (sort of, okay not really)!

[Shyguy]

Originally Posted by gferris5

crazy ideas: What about using old pallet wood? You would obviously have to do a ton of work to the wood, including creating joints to create the length, and sand and stain and stuff....

okay now that I've typed it it doesn't sound so good, but imagine the hippy credit you'd get for using a recycled source? okay who cares about hippies, but it would be free (sort of, okay not really)!

Talking about recycling, find some one that is tearing down an old barn or house. The wood should be well dried.

[gferris5]

an old barn would be really cool. talk about patina