Previous owner '68

[hewittca]

I must admit I am not up to speed on my stepside knowledge and I NEVER realized there wasn't a steel bed offered. Your bed is looking awesome, and those clueless like me will never even know it's not original!

[raggedjim]

Originally Posted by hewittca

I must admit I am not up to speed on my stepside knowledge and I NEVER realized there wasn't a steel bed offered. Your bed is looking awesome, and those clueless like me will never even know it's not original!

Someone told me that they have a squarebody step that came with a steel floor but I can't find one on the internet. I wanted to see one so I wouldn't have to do so much thinking on this one but I finally gave up and started cutting! Now comes the slow tedious fitting and welding.

I have something else I'm working on that I don't think I've ever seen done, but it is still in the plannng stages.

[justaburbn]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Bed wood is non-existent. Started out by tearing out the old wood and rusted strips, also took off tailgate and rear lights.

Hey Rg, do you know what the best wood for a truck bed is? LOL! That sounds like a set up to a joke! But seriously it's not. I new a good ole boy in Colorado that owned and operated an old saw mill for over 40yrs before I met him. He ran it another 20yrs after I had met him. The place was like a museum. He had 20' tall re-saw band saws with 8' wheels and 14" wide band saw blades. He cut big timbers for the mines and big chock blocks for binding tanks on train cars for the military. All kinds of stuff. Any way he always had these huge logs piled up and one day I asked him what did he use that species for. He told me truck beds. Ive recommended to everyone I've met that needed a truck bed. The ones that did use this species have all said, yes! Best wood for truck beds hands down. And it is the only use I've ever found for this species. Except firewood of course.

Go ahead and guess. Let's see if anyone else knows. It's going to have to be a good ole boy in the know for sure. 100%

[joeydurango]

Originally Posted by justaburbn

Hey Rg, do you know what the best wood for a truck bed is? LOL! That sounds like a set up to a joke! But seriously it's not. I new a good ole boy in Colorado that owned and operated an old saw mill for over 40yrs before I met him. He ran it another 20yrs after I had met him. The place was like a museum. He had 20' tall re-saw band saws with 8' wheels and 14" wide band saw blades. He cut big timbers for the mines and big chock blocks for binding tanks on train cars for the military. All kinds of stuff. Any way he always had these huge logs piled up and one day I asked him what did he use that species for. He told me truck beds. Ive recommended to everyone I've met that needed a truck bed. The ones that did use this species have all said, yes! Best wood for truck beds hands down. And it is the only use I've ever found for this species. Except firewood of course.

Go ahead and guess. Let's see if anyone else knows. It's going to have to be a good ole boy in the know for sure. 100%

Speaking as a longtime Coloradan, the only trees I can think of that would be easy to get truck-length strips out of would be ponderosa pine. Maybe aspen, but I wouldn't use aspen for much of anything.

Speaking as a born-and-raised Ohio Valley guy, I'd think you'd want a nice hardwood, the likes of which don't much exist in Colorado. But maybe they're too brittle.

[justaburbn]

Hey Joey, just remember who I heard it from. The fella was none other than F H Stags. He went on to glory in 2011. He was 94. Seeing that old wooden truck bed like it was made me think of him. I just saw the work Rg did on the metal bed. It's nice to had old stuff laying around. Good work Rg.

So... are you ready? Drum roll please....... COTTONWOOD!!!

Not too heavy, but dense. Won't twist, splinter or split. Things slide easily yet it has a felt like grip. Now I've not ever heard that from anyone else. Fran was a squared away dude new about wood.

That'd my story and I'm sticking to it!

[joeydurango]

Originally Posted by justaburbn

Hey Joey, just remember who I heard it from. The fella was none other than F H Stags. He went on to glory in 2011. He was 94. Seeing that old wooden truck bed like it was made me think of him. I just saw the work Rg did on the metal bed. It's nice to had old stuff laying around. Good work Rg.

So... are you ready? Drum roll please....... COTTONWOOD!!!

Not too heavy, but dense. Won't twist, splinter or split. Things slide easily yet it has a felt like grip. Now I've not ever heard that from anyone else. Fran was a squared away dude new about wood.

That'd my story and I'm sticking to it!

Ah ha! Cottonwood. Makes sense. Didn't even consider it. Was thinking of the high country, not the water corridors! I dig it.

[raggedjim]

Never even heard of cottonwood, I'll have to look it up.

Since I was working on the bed floor on my front porch I haven't been able to work on it lately due to the weather. I like to do as much grinding and cutting on the front porch to keep the inside of my shop a little cleaner. So I started looking for something to do inside.

Oddly I ended up grinding and welding anyway!

[raggedjim]

I had an old utility bed I bought from my neighbor years ago. I didn't need it but he needed the money so I bought it. I started looking at the tailgate on it and jumped straight into the rabbit hole.

Would this fit in a stepside bed?

[raggedjim]

Why, heck yeah! All it needed was some cutting, welding, and cussing and it fit kinda okay.

[raggedjim]

Oh, I had to evict the previous tenants...

[raggedjim]

Then I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to design a handle that would work AND fit in the limited amount of space I had in the upper tailgate roll. I know now why the aftermarket has never done this.

As an added bonus, it works! Now I just have to finish the welding and clean it up.

[raggedjim]

A pic of the outside of it. Once I do some work on it you shouldn't be able to tell it has been done.

[clay68c10]

Slick!

[wwboater]

The tailgate mods are very cool. Nice work.

[raggedjim]

Originally Posted by wwboater

The tailgate mods are very cool. Nice work.

Originally Posted by clay68c10

Slick!

Thanks guys, it wasn't something I would want to do again!

[Shifty One]

Great build...watching, and noticing that the grass ain't growing under your feet!

[raggedjim]

Originally Posted by Shifty One

Great build...watching, and noticing that the grass ain't growing under your feet!

Well, I SHOULD be working on the bed floor but the weather isn't cooperating. It looks a bit better today so maybe...

[sfont66]

Cool build! You have both knowledge and skills and it shows!
You also have a sense of humor that most people can identify with.

I really like that bumper jack that was previously your Grandfathers,so great that you still have it and use it regularly. I too have some of my grandfathers tools, makes me think of him, fine reminders of days gone by…..

Keep up the great work, we are following along

[raggedjim]

Thanks, Rg

[wpsharpshooter]

Whats the update today? With it being almost 70 degrees out.. Surely you been doing some wrenchin?

[raggedjim]

The weather has been great the last 2 days. I did get some time in the shop despite having to take my wife's aunt to the dentist. I worked on the tailgate mostly trying weld up the areas I had to cut to get the latches in place.

Still needs filler work but I went ahead and sprayed some etching primer to help slow down the rust.

[raggedjim]

Then I got one more filler strip welded on to the bed. I bent them to 90 degrees so I will have a surface to bolt (or weld, haven't decided) the bedsides to. Every little thing that gets done is one thing I don't have to do!

[72 tigger]

Nice fab work on the tailgate!

[raggedjim]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

Nice fab work on the tailgate!

Thanks!

[raggedjim]

Got the last filler strip on the bed floor today before the rain set in. Temperature dropped from 63 to 43 in an hour and the wind got so bad I had to quit welding. Still a bunch of rust holes to repair.