72 K10 Bed restoration

[Brian4618]

In the process of restoring my 72 k10 and while the cab is being worked on I am gonna try and get the bed ready. Im trying to decide how I want to do it and what order to put it together. I have all new bed sides, front panels, cross sills and ill be making my own boards. Should I assemble the sheet metal portion of the bed and then put the boards in? or build the wood floor and put the sheet metal on around it. Keep in mind the sheet metal will still need to be painted so is it a bad idea to have the wood down before it gets painted? I want to make equal width boards. my thought was that if i assembled the sheet metal, I can get an accurate measurement on how to equally space the boards.