47-55.1 pexi glass bed

[jocww]

My truck is almost done, and right now i have no bed. I was going to do a wood bed, but my dad had a great idea of doing a pexi glass bed so we could show off the air bags, compressor, frame, etc. I have never heard much less have i ever seen a bed made out of pexi glass. Has anybody ever done a bed like this? I was going to a tilt bed, but if i do it this way, maybe a sliding bed, i am not sure. It cant slide all the way out, as i have tubs now... but i will need a way to access the gas filler.

[MiraclePieCo]

Right off this forum:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ad.php?t=48346

[MiraclePieCo]

I also saw this '30 Ford PU with a ribless plexi bed years ago:

[jocww]

awesome thank you!!

[mongocanfly]

Its gonna be a nightmare to clean though ..unless your building a trailerd truck...itll scratch and stain easily taking away from the look...and if you do it dont use plexiglass..use lexan or similar....
Plexiglass breaks easily..
another disadvantage is if you dont have a perfectly smooth mounting surface ,itll show every little flaw, wave and twist when the light hits it....overtighten one bolt and the distortion is awful....

[jocww]

The truck will not be trailered, its built to drive to shows, and hopefully do route 66 one day. I assumed it would get rocks kicked up and whatever else is kicked up in the chassis. We were planning on going to tap plastics, not sure what they have. it will be a smooth surface as i was planning on building a frame out of 1x1 square stock since i have the c notch. but good advice on torquing everything the same. I will have weatherstripping around the edges so it wont rub against the side of the bed.

[_Ogre]

as long as you never drive your truck it would probably work
one trip and lexan or plexi would probably be scratched and dinged with rocks

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Its gonna be a nightmare to clean though ..unless your building a trailerd truck...itll scratch and stain easily taking away from the look...and if you do it dont use plexiglass..use lexan or similar....
Plexiglass breaks easily..
another disadvantage is if you dont have a perfectly smooth mounting surface ,itll show every little flaw, wave and twist when the light hits it....overtighten one bolt and the distortion is awful....

i used to do a bunch of custom car audio setups. lexan is a better material because its super tough. when I would cut the speaker holes in 1/2" material and the customer was hanging aorund I would offer the whole install free if they could break it with a sledge hammer. one guy almost knocked himself out, he put the lexan at angle on a curb and hit it, the sledge bounced and went right past his eye. that was the end of that

lexan is much stronger than plexiglass for the same thickness, so I usually downsized the thickness. but plexi is super strong too, as long as you get it thick enough. plexi does not take distortion, if there is a screw hole there it will crack before deforming. lexan can bend almost 10 degrees cold, if you are strong enough. plexi needs special saws and bits, lexan can cut with a jigsaw and wood blade.

lexan or plexi though, I hope you have the dollars for it. my brother got a GMT400 suburban in the late 90s and wanted all his stereo installed, I did a false floor in the rear of the truck with a plexi cover over the amp racks so you could still pile groceries on it, the 40x30 piece cut to size with a finger hole was almost 300 dollars. my brother complained a lot about that price, nevermind that I had taken two days and done a competition level install for free, he had to pick up the plexi, never heard the end of it. and that was the last car I ever installed anything for him.

[mgchevyparts]

20-30 years ago lots of guys use to do the floor out of plexi, especially guys doing 56 Ford F-100. I never really cared much for it. Now adays guys do it more for stereo systems

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

as long as you never drive your truck it would probably work
one trip and lexan or plexi would probably be scratched and dinged with rocks

If nothing else covered with dust on the underside that you can't wipe clean.

Brian

[jocww]

Wow that's alot too think about. Thanks for all your input. Il have to see if tap has lexan

[youngrodder]

All I think of when I see plexiglass beds is if you drive/wash it how would you ever get the water spots off of it....I agree it sounds like a maintenance nightmare. If you want to show off you bed just go with an actuator that raised the bed floor to expose your chassis.

Marc

[jocww]

I wonder how hard it would be to have that actuator run off my air bag compressor

[mongocanfly]

Use electric actuator.....a buddy of mine did a custom back half frame on a old Ford truck...to show it off, he just didnt put a floor in the bed

[jocww]

You wouldn't have any pictures of that would you? That's what I wanted to do to show off everything. That or a tilt bed. Just not sure how to engineer it all

[jocww]

Well we took what you guys said to heart but my dad still wants pexiglass/lexan bed as we already had some sheets. So today I tacked the frame up. Still need to figure out spacers I need 3inches to clear the air tank fittings and gas cap

[jocww]

How should i mount the frame? Im torn to either weld spacers/square stock on to my c notch or should i weld some square stock to the side of the bed? If i do the c notch i can just grind it off if we dont like it. It should be strong enough as i plan on using 1x2 .08 in stock as the columns/spacers. the only problem i see is that there is no support at the front or rear of frame, and while i will only ever put light loads ie chairs, cooler, duffle bag of clothes in the bed.

[jocww]

Figured it out I made stilts front and rear.