Too late Mate, but seriously that's how I did mine, OK I work as a relief D&T ( shop teacher), I was between Jobs and the Summer break ( Therefore absolutely no access to a work shop), no garage either, so work gets carried out in my tiny back garden. I used a £7 ($10)Sandvik 9pt Hardpoint Saw, a couple of tressles, a hand plane and a cheap electric router. The wood used was Standard sized building timber, ripped down by hand to the correct dimension, pine is relativly easy to work by hand , I seasoned / stored the wood in my shed or a few weeks before starting work. It was not difficult to rip the planks being only around 3/4" thick, if your saw sticks lube it some candle wax, car wax WD 40 even, you may also need to wedge the cut with an offcut, screwdriver or similar, if the wood being cut is held solidly, either clamped or by using your own body weight in the time honoured manner, sawing should be a breeze. The grooves were cut using a cheap brand router with a good 1/4" cutter, this took much longer than the sawing! The whole deal was completed in an afternoon.
This is not exotic wood, just good Oak. These boards are probably about 8 years old from my '36 Chevy truck. While repainting the truck, I removed the boards, stripped them, sanded with #120 sandpaper, stained with Minwax Golden Oak stain and applied 6 coats of ZSPAR Captain's Gloss Varnish ($28 per quart). The picture of just the boards is with the gloss finish. Then, I sanded with #400 sandpaper and applied 2 more coats of Captain's Satin Varnish. I want the truck to be shiny but I didn't like the boards so shiny. They had a plastic appearance with the gloss finish. The wood was finished on all sides and re-installed with stainless strips.
Here's a picture of a friend of mines p/u bed. This truck is a full on show piece. This is just a part of it. I've posted this pic before in pictures from the Starliner car show last year. But I think some people in this thread will appreciate it.
My father in law has a buddy who runs a saw mill in the deep heart of the hill country. I would like to try out maybe some cypress or mesquite, since they make beautiful tables out of it. Hopefully when the time comes I can get the hook up!!
No. I went to this place I got the oak kit - right down the street http://issuu.com/truckandcarshop/docs/ts_47-59_13_web
Shop truck still in the works. Building my own bed from mahogany... Load some gravel and that stump on the side of the house???? F-it. Ok .
My dad worked at the San Diego Zoo and brought home materials used to build shipping crates for animals. There was some very interesting exotic woods that he ran through a power planer. I used that material to make a dash as well as interior trim. In the olden days when import bikes were shipped in wooden crates, I salvaged a lot of mahogany for projects. We did a kitchen and bathroom with solid teak 25 years ago and let it sit on site for a year before the first cut. It's hard on tools, expensive and it's plantation grown. In other words, it's hard to find high quality material under $30 a board foot.
I built this one for a friend out of Sepele. Beautiful hard wood from Africa. Has awesome gold highlights in the sun with automotive clear. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
When I first got my truck on the road, I stopped and was talking with a neighbor, he seen I hadn't done the floor yet and said he had the perfect thing for it. Gave me several planks of Mahogany that had been salvaged from the inside cabin of a boat.
So I have a new project truck ('50 IH L-122 flatbed) that needs new bedwood. On my previous truck project, I used white oak with a urethane coat (pic below, yellow truck). That truck lives in Southern California. This new project is in Connecticut, and it will be outside. I'm thinking about using a wood that is good for weather. Also, how do the exotic woods handle freezing temps? Thanks
A buddy of mine gave me a couple boards from an old tanning shop. I could not resist using them on my 40 Ford pickup build ….. I unfortunately did not have enough so I had to do some fill in boards out of white pine stair tread. I left the outer boards alone to not take away from the two main boards ….. I believe they are solid maple …..
I seen a truck with plywood floor as a base and water proof laminate over that. Said he had a bunch left over from a job he was on. It was cheap, easy to install and replace as needed. May not be the toughest stuff, but it looked decent.
What's the best places for stainless strips with t bolts ? I'm seeing them about $30-35 each. There's always guys around me that have mobile saw mill set ups, they'll cut various sizes for you. 8ft and less is "drop" for them.
Here is a pic of the bed of my 40 Chevy p/u I built back in 2005. The bed wood is Ipe, a Brazilian hardwood. I build decks for a living and had this leftover, so I put it in my truck.
Hello, Most of the old hot rod trucks we have seen have been in service of some kind. From hauling household stuff, to hot rod parts to yard clean up items, the wood was once good looking and nice. But, over time, constant use and daily exposure to weather, any wood, even with surface treatment fades. So, unless the truck bed with pristine wood and chrome strips does not get used, the wood ages and so does the hot rod truck. The yellow Chevy pickup is a Chevy parts distributor/custom builder/restoration shop truck that gets a lot of use. The bed is nice, but it gets its share of protected blankets, plywood or other forms of protection when carrying parts from one place to another. Hickory is the hardest wood for most uses, Maple is the next and White Oak is the one that is the most common. You will probably have to go to a specialty hardwood store and order what you want. The normal big box stores may not carry all types and sizes. There is a specialty hardwood shop in the Dana Point area that is always quite busy. We have purchased plenty of different hardwoods for our projects. This old flatbed truck wood bed is well worn and that is what flatbed trucks are for, moving stuff from one place to another. Even cardboard boxes in varying sizes and shapes creates loads and scratches when transported. Plus, the truck stays outside 365 days of the year through all sorts of coastal weather. So, the fading is faster than most. If you use the truck bed for any day to day usage, do the urethane coating for somewhat hard protection, but use a thick blanket/bedspread or those thick rubber insert panels for protection. Otherwise, as nice as the wood looks, it won’t look that way for long. Unless of course nothing gets on the wood and the truck stays in the garage. Jnaki We have worked with wood panels of all sorts in our experience. Coating from strictly penetrating oil to old shellac, to the new modern polyurethane coatings, even surfboard resin, but they all get worn down from mother nature and eventually the wood gets affected with various scratches and dents. The surfboard resin makes wood surfaces look pretty outstanding, but will crack instantly with heavy weighted stuff or an accidental bump or two. So, those are usually for indoor coatings on wood objects. Multiple coatings of resin on freighter ship hatch covers. They were used for stereo/record player shelving as very low cost as 20 somethings. One small/short length for the top layer and a 15 foot long multiple wood plank cover for the main span on concrete blocks.
Used decking wood on two projects. Supposedly made to be in the weather. Used Ipe or iron wood on my '53 Chevy. Really hard and dense wood, sinks in water and same fire rating as concrete. Generates lemon yellow sawdust when cut due to the heavy anti-bacterial resin content. Finishes looking almost like black walnut. I use tigerwood, another tropical hard decking wood on my '59 El Camino. Very beautiful grain, looks a lot like figured teak when finished.
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