Buy a Wood Bed Kit or Make one

[ol Curt]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Now THAT is beautiful!

I'd love it if you'd ask him what process he used? Looks like Black Walnut, can you verify?

Also, just from seeing that, I'd love to see more pictures of the whole truck.

I think it is Walnut. He is on the board in the 67-72 trucks as Dads71

[jason65]

I got Mar-k bed wood and hardware. No problems and it looks great. I'm at work so I can't post pics.

[mbgmike]

[QUOTE=Dan in Pasadena;3518492]Thanks TR. From your pictures I would never have guessed "black deck stain". I love the depth of a thick clear coat, but I wonder if such would really last in the sun? Too many times I've seen it look cloudy and chipped around the edges.

MBGMike - Automotive clear OVER urethane? Can I ask why? Was this intentional or did you change your mind? Was the urethane applied with a spray gun? QUOTE]

We spray all bed wood on customer trucks. We use a brush to do the edges.
The finish was intentional. Actually we just read the Mar-K wood test and followed their instructions to apply.

[jason65]

Heres my Mar-k bed stuff.

[72freak]

Originally Posted by ol Curt

72 Freak,

What finish did you use? That looks close to the factory finish. I'm hoping to do mine that way.

I will look at the can of stain..but it was some typw of boat deck black stain....about 4 coats with 4 coats of clear on top

[m1garand]

does someone have the specifications on the board widths and placement. I am going to make my own from Honduran Mahogany and purchase the stainless strips?

[steverino66]

Originally Posted by m1garand

does someone have the specifications on the board widths and placement. I am going to make my own from Honduran Mahogany and purchase the stainless strips?

info here:
http://www.gmcpauls.com/47-72_BedWood_Info.htm
and here:
http://www.mar-k.com

[Slow Build]

I did my own bed wood on my 73 Stepside 30+ years ago. Only tools I used were a circular saw and a drill for the outer edges. It looked great.

[chevymankyle]

Does the Mar K wood kits come with hardware?

[jayoldschool]

No, hardware is separate.

Since this old thread was bumped, I'll throw in my vote:

Make your own! This took under four hours.

[Chibueno]

I chose to make mine and ues as many of the old parts as possible. All said and done I was able to make a bed for around $150.00. I did spend ablout 3 weekends and I owned a table saw and Dado blade, but all other parts are from big box hardware store. here is a before pic and after pic. The metal was all rattle canned finished after a clean up with wire wheel

[Chibueno]

Here are the supplies I used

[Chibueno]

Here are some of the bed wood planks under construction

[Chibueno]

A finished look for a daily driver.

[Eliminator4life]

Originally Posted by 72freak

If you have all the correct wood working tools, bits and so forth, and you have cheap place to get the wood......and you dont count your time as $$$$....then yes...you can come out ahead.

I did about 6 months of research before doing mine and in our area the price of the wood and the few bits/blades I needed was about the same cost as the best priced wood kit with shipping. There is a guy on EBAY that is about the cheapest I was able to find.

With this said...there are plenty of people who cut their own and say they save a lot of money. After my research was over, the only way it was close was if the wood was 1/2 price or FREE! (time included)

What's the sellers name on eBay that has the bed kits
Posted via Mobile Device

[Baddflash]

Hey just wanted to say the specs for the grooves on gmc Paul's website and classic heartbeat are not correct imo. The specs on mar-k's site matches the factory cut exactly and looks much better. I'm redoing half my bed wood I had done because they look like crap, this includes planeing down from 2" stock, fun.

Mar-k specs


Gmcpauls or classicheartbeat specs

[CMACDONALD1]

How about bed metal??? Should last the lifetime of the truck as long as it does not rust I guess. plan is to paint it tan and make it appear to be wood at first glance.

[BigDan3131]

CMAC, see if you can find an old timer who does woodgraining. They can make anything look like wood,

[66farmer]

I'm a fan of cutting your own bed wood, so you can step out of the box and be different.
Maple with purple hart and walnut inlay.

[Chevy Fleetside]

Originally Posted by 66farmer

I'm a fan of cutting your own bed wood, so you can step out of the box and be different.
Maple with purple hart and walnut inlay.

I agree, plus it costs less to do it yourself. Probably by half. If I can pull off what I want to do in my bed I am sure it will be nice. It sure won't be easy though.

[jayoldschool]

Originally Posted by Baddflash

Hey just wanted to say the specs for the grooves on gmc Paul's website and classic heartbeat are not correct imo. The specs on mar-k's site matches the factory cut exactly and looks much better. I'm redoing half my bed wood I had done because they look like crap, this includes planeing down from 2" stock, fun.

Mar-k specs


Gmcpauls or classicheartbeat specs

I used GMC Pauls dimensions, and the wood fit perfect. Your cut on the second pic where the strip would sit is too wide.

[Baddflash]

Sorry man but the specs are so different they both are not right, being that the specs from mar-k match the original 46year old wood that came out of my bed I would say they are the correct ones. How did you get bolts between the wood if there's no gap? Milled like that there's no room for expansion. The pieces when milled correctly will let the bolt fit between the boards without drilling or modifying and won't look like crap. Luckily you didn't use wood so it probably won't matter.

The specs from gmcpauls and classicheartbeat do not match the factory specs. Period.

[jayoldschool]

The bolts fit because the wood is moved apart when installed. I just dropped that trim piece on for the pic. Your pic clearly shows that the flange dimension that would be under the trim is way too wide. Double check your measurements. The pic doesn't lie. Period



As you can see, GMCPauls dimensions work perfectly. I had zero fit issues.

[Baddflash]

Except for the huge gaps around the bed strips it looks good. I never said it wouldn't work or fit I simply said they were not correct.

No pretty sure these are to spec maybe varries a couple thousand or hundredths



Changed pic because a digital caliper could be zeroed anywhere.

[HackJob65]

The pic of the old bedwood has me wondering if anyone on here around the KC area has some aged bedwood they are removing. I am keeping all the original panina I can on my project which is a short bed step side but there was no original wood left when I got the truck. So I could probably make wood from any bed configuration fit mine.