Started my bed wood.

[72c20customcamper]

I picked up some 4/4 which is actually almost 5/4 white oak . Ran it threw the bench planer . Took forever this stuff is hard as a rock . After three boards I had to flip the blades. But it looks great. What I started with and after it was planed. Next is cutting to size and dado ,and cut the relief.

[Steeveedee]

Nice! I love white oak. I made my last carving tool chest out of quartersawn white oak. Are you going to oil it, or put some surface finish on it?

[72c20customcamper]

I may just thin the saddle paint . Give it a more factory look . Not looking for show bed but functionality. Chose white oak because it has a high degree of rot resistance.

[custom10nut]

Nice! Dried White Oak is like working with iron. Be patient, go slow, and resharpen your bit often.
I made all my new bed wood out of Southern Yellow Pine, so it wasn’t so hard to work with. Good luck

[Astro-Balls]

Wood Be Good!

[72c20customcamper]

All planed down. Cut the boards to more manageable 100 inches to do the dado and plunge cut. It's nice having the tools needed to do the wood. Did all my test cuts for the metal strips need to increase the plunge cut width a little. Also nice that the younger brother is helping out..

[Mike C]

That's going to look great!

[special-K]

x2! I like the thinned out paint idea. My friend had a Med Blue & White '72 Cheyenne Super Custom Camper survivor from WA (imagine that) with rotted bed wood. I made up his floor and did the same thing. It came out looking right. It seemed the best solution for that situation. Then you can always oil it further on down the road

[Old_Gold]

Nice choice on the white oak, and definitely interested in how the finish works out. Keep us posted!

[72c20customcamper]

Put away the wood working tools and took out the metal tools. I already posted the rot on the bed.

[72c20customcamper]

Going to preserve the 440 Mark's on the truck. It's under the hood and behind the seat.

[special-K]

I'm going to stop reading your threads. Thanks to your other thread about checking wheel bearings I discovered both passenger bearings were pitted. Now I have to wait till the weekend to button it up!!

I'm glad I don't have wood yet for my '67 project and the bed is stored in pieces. Otherwise I'd probably walk out there and discover the wood rotted away and sheet metal rusted out!

Looks good

[72c20customcamper]

So far I have 160 $ in wood 54 $ for replacement planer blades. I usually sharpen them but time dictated new. And a day or so of my time in it so far.
Going to get the paint today that should be hefty amount.

[72c20customcamper]

Tim your better off doing it before they go. You would probably be on the road to Carlisle and they would have seized.

[special-K]

Yeah, the inner had pretty bad pits, enough that the rollers didn't spin freely. They were Bower bearings and I'm pretty sure it was me who put them in last brake job in '07. Never had a problem from Bower but I ordered Timken this time. It's a posi so I use premium lube.

You got a great deal on the white oak. Or did you cut the tree down, mill it, and dry it yourself with the money being in operating expenses?

'07:

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by special-K

Yeah, the inner had pretty bad pits, enough that the rollers didn't spin freely. They were Bower bearings and I'm pretty sure it was me who put them in last brake job in '07. Never had a problem from Bower but I ordered Timken this time. It's a posi so I use premium lube.

You got a great deal on the white oak. Or did you cut the tree down, mill it, and dry it yourself with the money being in operating expenses?

'07:

Only have some black walnut, hickory and some maple that we milled here. Would have had to use a mixture to make a complete bed. If this was going to be a show truck I would have used some of the White oak or chestnut that was used in my barn as rafter cribs. Its 8/4 x15' so I would have to mill it down. But it would have to be a special truck to use wood from a pre civil war barn.

[72c20customcamper]

Would have had enough of the walnut. Have 6 or 7 like this in the barn 12 + footers.Piece I'm making into a cutting board

[special-K]

Nice wood. I'm not sure if I told you I live in a pre-civil war chestnut log home. So I do have an appreciation for such things. I have some milled stock members from a mortise & tenon bank barn, but not too much. It the people decide to take it down, I asked to be the one. It had been moved to this property, yes, whole standing barn pulled by dozer on a plank track using ivory soap by the previous owner... who was my original customer. He did a lousy foundation that is failing terribly and these folks want to do the event barn thing. If not for that I'd say save it. But the barn is in a state of serious neglect combined with needing a full foundation

[flashed]

Man , I love that old wood .

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by special-K

Nice wood. I'm not sure if I told you I live in a pre-civil war chestnut log home. So I do have an appreciation for such things. I have some milled stock members from a mortise & tenon bank barn, but not too much. It the people decide to take it down, I asked to be the one. It had been moved to this property, yes, whole standing barn pulled by dozer on a plank track using ivory soap by the previous owner... who was my original customer. He did a lousy foundation that is failing terribly and these folks want to do the event barn thing. If not for that I'd say save it. But the barn is in a state of serious neglect combined with needing a full foundation

The walnut would make a great bed someday . Just a little water to enhance the grain /color

[flashed]

I wanted Walnut wood for mine but it was a little Pricey .

[arcticman]

Hello Mark,
I am also in the middle of rebuilding my bed floor (67 K15 swb wideside). Like you I decided to use white oak. I purchased 4/4 and and planed it down. and cut the channel for the slats. I purchased new slats and hardware from Classic heartbeat and had them powder coated flat black. Its my understanding the wood was originally black in color from the factory. what exactly they used is not clear. Most of what I have been able to read up on seems to be opinions and speculations. I believe GMC used Pine or Fur that was treated.

I wanted to keep the look as original as possible so I finished the wood with Minwax black stain and sealed it with Satin Helmsman Spar urethane (oil based).I sealed the bottom, sides, and end grain with 3 coats of thinly applied POR15 and 1 coat of POR15 flat black top coat. I also did my cross braces with the POR 15 and im very happy with the results It is a great product but needs to be applied per instruction (thin coats) and like everything else preperation is everything. Hopefully this will help with the stability of the wood.

If I had to do it over again I would not use White Oak for the following reasons.
1) very heavy wood, Its going to take 5 boys and a girl to lift this short bed.
2) The look Im going for really covers the beauty of the wood.
3) expensive wood althought you got yours at a great price.
4)Hard to work with compared to other wood. does not accept stains well. out gases. not very stable wood expands and contracts quite abit.I had my boards all cut to size sanded and ready to apply the finish. I left them to sit outside all winter.They were in a covered out building. Its very dry in the winter up here and all the boards cuped alot. When I brought them indoors this spring to refinish I left them to acclimate for a few weeks and they returned to original shape. Im hoping the POR15 on the endgrain will stop this from accuring.

anyway good luck hope it turns out to your liking Ive included a few pics. of my finished boards. I have not installed them because i can not decide if i want to refinish/ restore the truck to its original new condition or keep it original.

[72c20customcamper]

Well the early trucks had linseed oil with lampblack aka soot creosote all the trucks had southern yellow pine . A very hard pine but not to easy to come by today, So they were all black. I like that look .

Cutting board done . Now I need to find the right truck to do the bed in .

[72c20customcamper]

Think I might have found the truck for the black walnut bed ...

[72c20customcamper]

Ya 600 to sand blast the bed sides . All of maybe 45 minutes .