Ready for bed wood-Advice?

[frenchy51]

Just spent 2 days removing the old bed wood from my son's 69 long bed I'm painting. Was not a fun job to say the least.....
Anyway-getting ready to order a wood kit. From research I see Mar-K is one of the best but I'm in Calif. and the shipping is a bunch. Any one know of a good kit available closer to Calif. so ship costs are less? Or should I bite the bullet and go Mar-K? I'm thinking of going with pine and probably painting it since it will be on a daily driver that will spend time outside working....
Any advice would be much appreciated-Thanks

[Rich69shortfleet]

Not exactly closer to you, but I was mightily impressed with the wood bed kit and service I received from Horkey Wood and Parts for Pickups.

http://www.horkeyswoodandparts.com/

He can put together a complete kit for you, his prices are reasonable compared to others and the woodworking is absolutely top notch. His shop is also very impressive. He can make a kit out of just about any wood type you can come up with. I got quartersawn white oak and the quality of the wood was second to none. (I have some knowledge here as I've made a number of arts & crafts style furniture pieces for my wife using quartersawn white and red oak. Finding nice boards in quartersawn can be quite a challenge, let alone long wide boards of high quality as is needed in a truck bed.)

[jeffahart]

All the places in CA order from Mar K. Go on the Classic parts site. They have the pine cheaper than Mar K. Mar k pine is still Grade C, so you aren't getting anything great in the way of pine from them. Classic parts is about $250. With shipping about $325. So you can't beat that for just wood at most places. Plus you are better off with hard pine than Oak, the red oak is not well suited for outdoors.

http://www.classicparts.com/default....FQWUfgodBYkC5g

This place, not classic industries on CA.

Also, I have a pine bedwood delivery coming from them on Tuesday, check back with me then and I can tell you how it looks. I'm expecting C, but I use my bed often, and sometimes brutally!