boltless bed strips

[rustbucket66]

Has anyone had this problem with the stainless bed strips with no bolts? I like how clean they look without the bolts, but the was a problem that arose. As you can see from the first picture, the track that the fasteners slide in doesn't fall into the groove machined in the wood like the stock strip does. It sits too high above the wood and when the fender tub is put on it sits way too high. There is about 1/4 inch of fresh air under there, and I don't want to force it down by tightening the bolts. I talked to MarK about it, and they claimed that these strips sit at the same height as the stock ones. Hmmm, I beg to differ. The last pic shows the tub being too high. I ended up grinding some of the machined area off for about 6 inches, and kind of sloped it down so it wouldn't be noticed hopefully, that the strip sits lower in that area. I had to be careful not to damage the finish in the wood strips, and then restain where the ground off area was.

[1963c-10]

I would have the wood milled to allow the strips to fit. Should be a fairly easy fix if you can get a good table saw, set the depth and run the boards through. You'll have to fix the finish if you do though. I don't think I'd leave the strips sitting high.

[Sharps40]

Your saw kerf in the board is too narrow. It appears to be a 1/8" wide kerf....1/4" wide kerf is called for to fit the original bed strips. See attached dimensions.

Refer to dimension "C" about 2/3s of the way down the page.

http://www.classicheartbeat.com/bed_wood.htm

Tape up the top of the wood, set up dado blade in the table saw and mill the kerf 1/4" wide by 1/4" deep (scrap stock first to check fit!). Could do it with a router too but need to use a fence or guide and run in the right direction to keep the bit from biteing/pulling into the "Show" portion of the wood.

Once you have a proper kerf witdh the strips will drop in and sit correclty. MarK is correct in their assessment.

Luck!