Simulated Wood bed

[RodC]

I have been thinkin about this for a while. The wood is about gone in my bed and the prev owner tack welded a sheet of metal over the whole thing. Yep all the wood and the metal strips are under there. (gets kinda noisy)

I was thinking about:
Removing every thing
Putting the metal down where the wood belongs
Paint the metal dark gray
Drill holes in the metal and put the wood retaining strips on top
Paint the strips blue

Has anyone done this? I don't haul much and I think the strips would only stick 1/4 of an inch.

[stllookn]

Just my opinion but the wood will leak and trap mosisture between it and the steel floor. It will also get fine dust and dirt under there, abrade whatever paint you put down and eventually rust. Of course this depends on how you use your truck. You will end up with a wood bed over a rusted steel floor. I would do one or the other but not both. Just my 0.02.

[Protrucks]

I think he is wanting to replace the stock wood bed with some type of simulated wood product.

[Zumo]

Well, check this out. I built a deck last year out of real wood but I noticed the new plastic deck wood while I was buying my wood. I was on average 2 to 3 bucks more a piece.

So, I was thinkning about using the plastic wood in my bed instead of regular wood. I figured somebody has the patterens to cut the wood your self to place in the bed. So I could buy the plans and buy the hardware and metal strips and vwalla! Plastic bed.
Here's a pic of the wood used in a deck:

[stllookn]

Sorry guys, but for all us old "wood butchers" it just ain't the same as real wood! Demand the REAL thing...solid oak! I can't wait to do the bed in my daughter's truck. The truck will be painted a metalic burgandy and I will use red oak with 10 coats of marine spar varnish...nothing is could be more beautiful! I will post pictures when it is done.

[Tim Rich]

We had the same situation on my truck. They had welded a single piece of sheet metal over the whole bed floor over the top of deteriorating wood and metal strips. It sounded like a bucket of bolts and you couldn't get to any bolts to tighten them. We took the sheet metal out and removed the old wood and strips when we took the bed off the truck.

We chose to replace it with new strips and yellow pine. I stained the pine and put three coats of marine grade polyurethane before installing and I love it. It really makes the truck and it never ceases to surprise folks when they glance into the back.

Because of the grooves in the wood strips, you're right that it stick up a little higher if you mounted them on a single sheet of metal. You might have a couple of issues if you go this route:

1) If I remember correctly, the edges of the bed strips are lower than the center part. It that's the case, you might bend them as you tighten them down.
2) Do you think the metal strips on the sheet metal would be prone to squeak?

If you don't haul much, I think that's more reason to go with the wood bed, and just throw in a rubber mat when you haul.

The fake wood (plastic, fiberglass) approach is interesting, but if you're looking to save money by making your own cuts, how much would the real raw wood cost?

Good luck with what you choose.

[RodC]

No No, there would be NO wood just metal and the strips to make it look a little better.

And I may weld the strips to keep them from squeeking.