1965 wood bed floor - DIY

[UTSA]

So I'm new to this forum and I decided to start off my introduction by posting a thread on the current works of my pickup. Here are a few pictures of the wood bed floor being installed.

The plan is:
Buy the wood and cut it myself (with a circular saw only).
Buy all (or most of) the carriage bolts from Home Depot.
Buy the polished strips from some website.

I will figure out how to upload more pictures later.

[PGSigns]

Buy the bolts with the strips from Mar-K. Best value. With the amount of bolts it will be crazy expensive through the box stores. There are drawings available on line for the bed wood that give you all the sizes and the dimensions for the cut outs for the strips. Find a buddy that has a table saw and a router and it will be much easier and you will end up with a nice looking bed.
Jimmy

[Clyde65]

Ditto what PGsigns said!

Why work 3 times harder, work 3x smarter my friend.

[3 On Da Tree]

It's going to be a real challenge to mount the new wood upside down.

[jayoldschool]

I did my wood on a radial arm saw. Turned out perfect. Use a regular blade, and a dado blade. Ten foot lengths, so it was an adventure getting down the basement!

[LVPhotos]

I did our step in one solid good one side oak plywood.

[UTSA]

So I found out my phone posts pictures upside down. Here are a few more pictures of what I did yesterday with the circular saw. That is the only tool I have and I've asked around friends and they don't have any other tools.

the board in the following pictures was a scrap piece that I decided to practice on.You will see in the last picture that the cut is a bit crooked. I will try and fix this on the next boards.
I am not trying to get this wood into show quality that's why I think I can do it with a circular saw.

[Mackie]

To get a nice straight cut using only a circular saw:
Find a good straight piece of ranch casing and tack it to your bed wood with small brads to use as a ripping guide against the saw's shoe

[spookylynx]

Looks like you used a composite. What did you use? How heavy do you think it is? Im thinking of a composite, but worried it will be too heavy

Originally Posted by jayoldschool

I did my wood on a radial arm saw. Turned out perfect. Use a regular blade, and a dado blade. Ten foot lengths, so it was an adventure getting down the basement!

[UTSA]

I think this is Pine (or some cheap wood)

I might go get better wood but this was for practice.

Today I was able to get better cuts. It looks like I will be ordering the metal strips from Mar-k and cutting my own wood.

I'm also looking towards the finishing of the wood. Definitely want to paint it with an exterior paint to keep it from rotting.

[spookylynx]

yeah, I saw that I tried some experiments the same way only with a table saw. I was wondering what jayoldschool used. It looks like a composite finish piece.

[Clyde65]

Mar-K has a write up on staining and painting wood so it will last.

I did mine ( not in the truck yet) with Por15 ( 2coats) and the Behr Exterior Black (3 coats) waiting 30 minutes between coats. it should never come off or fade, ever!


Good luck!

[jayoldschool]

Used TREX fascia board. Perfect. Details here:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=583030

Wanted something that needed zero maintenance and would be ok outside in all four seasons.



I don't think it is much heavier than stock yellow pine, here's how it sits:

[spookylynx]

Nice.. I just read your link, and remembered that I had read it before. I think that's the way I'm going to go too. I don't think they make Trex anymore but there are other brands and the quality is even better now. Thanks for the pics, truck looks good.

[UTSA]

well its been a while since I post to this thread so I'll update y'all on what I've done.
This has turned to be more than a wood bed restore, but more of a cleaning and protecting sheet metal.
attached are some of the things that i've done.

[UTSA]

So what I'm trying to do is clean out all the dirt and knock out some of the surface rust and paint it with Rustoleum Protective Enamel Gloss Black. The surface side of the truck will be left intact for a future paint job. the underside will be already done though.

Here are some of the results I've been getting.

[UTSA]

Those pictures above were just one coat. I plan to do one more at least where I think the water will splash on the fenders due to the tires. I also couldn't help it but mock up a fender in the truck and see how it would look lowered. It would look great!