Featured Hot Rods Pickup bed/box floors. Show me what you did

Mar-K went out of business.

 

Man…I didn’t know that!

 

That Ipe wood that @willys36 mentioned, seems to be the ticket. I would have to order it, but man it’s indestructible!

https://ipewoods.com/WhatIsIpe

 

You should repeat that.

 

That’s what the wife said.

 

I drove past our local wrecking yard yesterday and thought to myself that I oughta stop and see Gary, he might have a truck bed that I can cut the floor out of. Like some of the others, my pickup will get a tonneau so it doesn’t need to be real pretty.

 

Around here a fella can buy a whole non-running '70s-'90s square body/CK or late model Ford or Dodge for a few hundred bucks. Might be able to pick up a later bed or whole truck and cut out a section the size you need out of it, gotta be about as functional as a fella could get, and it'll look "factory".

 

I started looking for marine grade plywood around here....apparently it is made of unobtanium. I need to call my buddy that owns a lumber yard and see if he has a source.

 

I saw this at a car show a while back and was impressed enough to waste some cloud space on it. The fabricator used tie down bars to separate the wood. Easily insert rings anywhere you like to secure your load or remove them and throw them in a bag behind the seat door a clean look when not needed.

 

I did a red oak with stainless strip bed in my 57 that's destined to be a shop truck. My intentions were to get the Amish to rough cut some lumber, use painted/powdercoated steel strips and coat the wood in used motor oil. After some thought about the Amish being 2 hrs away, hoping they could cut it right for the strips, doing the drive 4 times, I decided to just price out a kit.
While researching, I found Brothers parts had a deal going on the oak/stainless kits for cheaper than the pine/raw steel kit plus it had free shipping ! So I unintentionally ended up with a "fancy" bed for my shop truck.



My t-bucket floor is wood, I used 3/4 marine grade then coated it with epoxy resin, 20 yrs later it's still just as strong as the day it was installed.



What about using that plastic composite decking material ?

 

Take a gander at the seat track, the next time you fly. I use it on all my trailers. It's been used in commercial aviation for decades. Good stuff.

 

I ran it down the walls of my car trailer, comes in handy to strap stuff to.

 

Probably just gonna use 5/4 deck boards in mine
It’s a beater

 

I love it. when I worked in aviation, if it was out of tolerance, it was trash. I would scavenge every piece that got tossed. I used to have tie straps that went over my slicks on both sides of the trailer. Just a safety system. Redundancy is your friend.

 

Where did you find the Ipe? I called all of the local speciality wood stores in OK and no bueno.

 

Been many years ago but I found suppliers for both Ipe and Tigerwood in a NET search for decking lumber. These aren't Rockler quality cabinet woods, they are literally decking lumber. I mail-ordered the boards. Shipping is a LOT higher nowadays!!

I just typed in "Ironwood decking suppliers" and here is what Duck Duck Go gave me for suppliers in my area (Greater Dallas Texas);
If you mean ironwood-style tropical hardwood decking—usually sold as ipe, ***aru, or garapa—these suppliers serve the Van Alstyne/North Texas area:

• Lee Roy Jordan Lumber — Dallas
  Stocks or sources ipe and other tropical hardwoods for decking. Their Dallas yard is at 11529 Emerald St., Dallas, TX 75229; phone (214) 357-7317. lrjlumber.com
  
  
• Brazilian Lumber — ships to Dallas–Fort Worth and across the U.S.
  Offers ipe, ***aru, garapa, jatoba, tigerwood, decking accessories, milling, and delivery to jobsites. Phone (877) 606-3306. brazilianlumber.com
  
  
• Brazilian Ipe Wood — ships to Texas
  Specializes in Brazilian ipe decking and accepts custom milling requests. brazilianipewood.com
  
  
• Iron Woods
  A national premium hardwood supplier offering ipe, ***aru, garapa, deck tiles, railings, and custom components. Phone (888) 932-9663. ironwoods.com

 

My 33 is going to be a daily so I'm using late model bed floor

 

So, did you have to cut the floor out in the salvage yard? Or did you have to buy a complete bed?

 

I bought this one from a friend who has a body shop, it was a take-off that was hit on the side. I cut it out at my shop. I paid $100 for it. I have purchased another bed from a salvage yard that was closing. Paid $50 for it. I have plans for it.

 

Friend of mine needed a floor for a mid 60s ford.
Trimmed out a floor from a mid 90s. Looks great

 

On my 41 I was building (back a couple + decades ago) the bed from scratch to actually haul a load. I made a frame work for the floor out of 1/8 inch angle iron



Then built the floor out of 16 or 18 guage (don't remember), recessed angled floor in back to get all the gas out the rear facing outlet



Then shaped the rest with my crude angle iron brake again



Then plug welded it all to the angle iron sub-structure



It's plenty heavy enough to haul an engine but in the end there's not much room to haul anything, but ***. In hindsight I could've saved some weight by using 1x1 for the sub-structure and aluminum for the floor.
The truck turned into a monster, more race than anything else, the heavy bed materials do even out the front/rear weight bias, but it's still 320 lbs heavy on the nose even with a full 15 gallon fuel tank.



But anyways just showing you can make a bed floor out of just about anything you want, depending on what you think you need.

 

Theres a local guy here on marketplace that has a square body beed floor. He wants $200 for it. I can't imagine a huge demand for bed floors. I need to investigate that a little more.

 

What makes it indestructible also makes it very destructible to blades. It's very difficult to work with as it contains a ton of silica. Also means you should use proper PPE when cutting it as well.

 

That’s a good price if it’s decent.
And c10 parts are probably in higher demand that your f100 theses days

 

I will say on my old daily pickup I had the bed sprayed with Line-X, that stuff was impervious to just about anything and everything ! The only thing that ever phased it was using the tailgate as a plasma cutter table, and then it only effected a few small bb size things.
The bad is that you are not sliding anything in the bed on it, nothing slides on it. I always had to lay cardboard or wood down to slide engines and rear ends in, that stuff was like a glue trap and lasted the whole 22 yrs I owned it.

 

I think if I use a late model bed floor, I will spray it with Raptor. If I use wood, it will probab ly get a rubber mat. There is a high probability that it will never be seen, once installed.

 

700-800 chipped on the c10 floors
Still not bad if you were paying a shop to fix an old one

 

I looked at this photo far longer than I should have trying to figure out why the left wheel house was 6” inbound of the bedside!

 

Ha, then realized it was a reflection on beautiful black paint.