Its time to start thinking about putting new bed wood in my 51 chebby P U. Anyone got any pictures of what you have used ? I guess it dose not have to be wood?
Here's mine, yellow pine. I bought it from a wood flooring guy he said yellow pine was more stable than oak. It's been in there since 2004 and it still looks good. I will never make one that nice again.
Did my '55 Chevy 1st Series ten years ago and it's still good. Mar-K tested different wood finishes and the one that did best at that time was POR-15 with BEHR exterior house paint topcoat. That's right, POR-15. Their test was three coats of each for a total of six whereas I got by with 2 coats of each for a total of four. Bed boards were yellow pine.
Not a truck bed but I made some shelves years ago out of oak plywood. Finished it with a cherry colored stain. Looked great and wore like cement.
I used oak from MarK on a 51 Dodge. 2 coats of polyurethane on top and spray undercoat on the bottom. It turned out super nice. Sent from my Moto G Play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I am not finished with this yet(never will be), but I used birch plywood from Home Depot. I intend to put the chrome strips down in it later to resemble a stock look. I just sanded the plywood an coated it with several coats of spar urethane.
Find some old growth wood. Reclaimed white oak is a good choice. Usually from barn siding. It will last forever, has tight rings, hard as a rock. This stuff was cut from the original virgin forests. I’ve seen unpainted stuff exposed to the elements last 150 yrs.
I used Tigerwood (a tropical wood used as decking) for my grandson's '59 Elky w/ stainless '53 Chevy strips, Stainless sheet with same bed strips in friends '42 Willys, & Ipe wood (another tropical decking wood that sinks in water and has the same fire rating as concrete!) for my '53 pickup, again with the stainless strips. the Elky bed is finished with catalyzed urethane clear coat and has begun to peel. I planned on immediately putting on a bed cover to protect it but grandson didn't follow through. The Ipe deck (don't have a photo of it finished, will post one when I get home) is sealed with a premium wood sealer. When the sealer is applied it looks exactly like walnut.
I used white oak (closed cell), does not **** up water like red oak does. 4 coats of marine varnish. I would never use plywood if you ever plan getting it wet.
Oak as well, clear epoxy with urethane satin over it. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I wonder if I have a pic of the bed of my truck...hmmmm.... here's one I just took. The bed was done in 1990, and has spent time parked outside, and time parked inside, and has hauled a lot of stuff around, too. I just used lumber from the lumber store, I think #2 douglas fir, or something. It's an 8 foot bed, I had to get 10 ft boards because they need to be about 97" long. One of the boards was pretty ****py, it warped and had knots fall out. Oh well. The cuts I did at a friend's house, because he had a table saw set up. I tried to copy the original contour at the edges of the boards, where the metal strips fit in. The wood used to be painted black like it was from Chevy, but it went away because of the weather. The **** in the bed I need to unload...I replaced a rotted post on my mom's porch last weekend. I always wonder why my truck bed is the only one that looks like a truck bed, rather than a dining room table or something?
Yellow pine is what those trucks originally had and coated with a special oil, so it had a black look to it. Sent from my SM-J700T1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
To the OP I used a sheet of oak plywood from home depot . I cut a 1/8th of a inch down the center, marked and drilled all the holes. Then I sprayed the underside with bedcoating, stained the top side, and I applied marine varnish. It looked great. Sent from my SM-J700T1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
