Projects Building a 57 Chevy Shop Truck

Teak oil might be another option for you.

 

A 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits will penetrate better than boiled linseed oil alone. I would recommend using it on the top, bottom and edges to completely seal the wood. A paint roller works great for applying. Give everything a couple coats and it will last for years. I’ve done hundreds of semi trailers with wood floors using the 50/50 mix, without exception they have held up much better than untreated floors.

 

I would use Waterlox sealer! https://waterlox.com/original/

 

Use chainsaw oil on the wood and get a ss blackener kit from Caswell (available on amazon) for the strips.
Then, maybe, we won't call you a chainer.

 

I used just linseed oil on this pine bed in my similar application and seems like it dried out quicker than I would have expected. Sounds like that 50/50 mix might be what I would try next. And, no one called me a chainer even with my fancy polished stainless strips. The whole kit came with my truck when I bought it so I just used what I had.

 

I got a notice that it shipped today, all 142 lbs of it, that'll be great to move into the garage.
I wonder if there's a long term storage ritual I must follow to prevent warpage ???

 

I wouldn't take any chances on warpage. I might try strapping it to something like 2 x 4 steel tubing if it's going to be unused for a while. Better safe than sorry????

 

Best to get the wood treated to prevent moisture content change, with varnish, or Waterlox or whatever to seal the wood.

 

Just read through the link on the Waterlox, “can be used for exterior if not in direct sunlight”. Might not be the best choice for a PU bed?

 

lol what’s next “can be used in water if kept dry”

 

Haul the boards into the house and stash them in an out of the way spot, like under a bed or something.

 

That's where the spare blower setup is stored lol

 

I got the wheel tubs welded in, one stepcloser to hotrodism



And knocked all the puncture holes flat in both bed rails, also noticed this bed was also a spare tire bed, so some extra holes to weld up one day.

 

Doing dirty work, got the majority of the undercoating scraped off




Wire wheeled the rear crossmember, probably pull the bed back off and stand it on end to wire wheel the rest of it. That's got to be easier than trying to do it where it is.

 

Any tips on removing that undercoating? I have a similar situation. Some of it has come off with a putty knife or chisel but other parts hasn’t.

 

Oscillating saw with a scraper blade

 

I scraped with the puddy knife, then I wire wheeled it, which kind of just smeared it around, then I took a plumber's torch and heated it up then scraped it with the buddy knife again.
It's like dancing with a fat lady, if she steps on your toes it's gonna hurt, to much heat and it just spreads like butter on hot toast, just enough heat and it'll scrape off.
The next day I scraped it cold with the puddy knife again, what's left is very thin, I might try the wire wheel again. I have decided to sand and paint the part that's under the fender but might end up doing more of the bed side where the paint has flaked to bare metal.
I've never really tried preserving flaky layered paint before so this is kinda new for me to deal with. My plan was to leave the paint alone and just spiff up the underside but I'm not sure I want to just leave bare metal where the paint is flaking off either.

 

Thanks for response. I tried the plumber’s torch and it helped but I think I may have been a little too aggressive and I have some oil canning now. Don’t want to dance with that lady again. Interesting thought on the oscillating tool but I don’t have one. I also tried some with a paint stripping disk on a grinder and it kind of smeared too. Haven’t tried a wire brush yet. Yours is looking good! Keep it up!

 

Mine, almost finished, need to finish tailgate, Firebird clip, SBC/700r4 10 bolt with 336 gear

 

Looks nice

 

I got my backordered parts almost 2 months early so back to work on the bed.
I located and drilled out the spot welds holding the angle strips on the inside of the bed.



Then made up the gaps to wheel tub with tape and poster board. The plan looked good I thought, until I laid it on the new angle pieces and seen they wouldn't lay flat, no way to properly transfer the measurement over.



So I grabbed another piece of poster board and made full size templates of all 4 pieces, which worked out for the pattern transfer.



Nothing left to do other than cut up brand new backordered parts, pretty happy with the way they fit.

 

Well Phil.. looks like next year's cruises will be a split between 2 trucks.. the J and the bucket

 

I'm going to have to branch out to other cruise nights to be able to drive them all.
Hey, I decided after the bed I'm going to try and get that 307 that's in the truck up and running, hopefully it runs just for the sake of it.

 

307 for the win

 

I wire wheeled and sanded the lower section of the inside of the bed in preparation for Eastwoods rust converter.
I taped of the spot weld holes then gave it a good medium coat of the rust converter



Then I followed that up with a couple coats of the same satin black I painted the crossmembers with

 

I marked the angle brackets where the spot welds will be then ground it down to bare metal in those spots, then sanded the brackets with 320. I taped over the spots I intended to spot weld then gave it a couple coats of the satin black, pulled the tape and had nice bare metal spots.



I then gave the bare spots some weld through primer, after that I spent entirely to long making sure the brackets were all evenly spaced. I had to rework the front of the passenger tub a bit but got it to within a 1/16 th, don't think anyone will notice, then I welded them in.



Next will be to try and doctor up the new metal to somewhat blend in with the old paint, we'll see how that goes. Lol

 

She’s getting there, nice work on fitting the metal up. Any chance this will pull a trailer with the J on it?

 

That's the plan, thinking about putting Peacock's Lube-Atory on the doors even though the Henry J says Peacock's Speed Shop on the fender.
I've got an idea of how I want that but I'll have to sketch it out first to see if I really like it or not.

 

Sounds like a great plan Phil, that truck will look great pulling the J on a trailer to the track or wherever. SOOOO COOOOL!

 

I like it. What is the significance of Peacocks? I’ve seen the picture of the sign in your garage, didn’t know if there is history there.