Slick 60's

Hi Guys,

I know Oak is the traditional wood of choice for wood beds. I'm wondering if anyone has used anything different? Maybe Hickory, Teak, Maple or even something soft like pine?

What about on the side rails?

I'd love to see some photos of your wood bed and your wood side rails.

I plan doing this to my 62 stepside. Any advice before I take on this project?

Thanks,
Danny

They did not come in oak ofter the mid thirties.
If you are going to make it up you can use whatever you want. The original beds were painted to match the color of the truck.I believe they were made out of a hard yellow pine.
MAR-k sells both oak and yellow pine you can order it a multitude of ways and either red oak or yellow pine
http://www.mar-k.com/catalog/catalog.aspx.
If you need the dimensions for the short flare let me know I can send you their build sheet
John

Thanks, John. Yes, if you can please email the dimensions i'd appreciate it.

Do the wood boards have to have the slots to accept the metal bed strips? Can I use wood from a local mill or hardware store?

Thanks,
Danny

Danny,
all four sides of every board have kerf cuts, its not that big a deal if you have a table saw or are handy with a router.
I really do not think you can beat the yellow pine price, and have not shopped for oak in quite awhile. Mar-k seems to have a decent thing going price wise.
You can check youre local wood outlets, but don't forget hardwood floor stores, they may have some wood that strikes you.

P.M. me your address and I will copy and send my file
John

Thanks, John.

PM sent.

Kindly,
Danny

John
Can you shoot me a copy too? I got all the pieces, but no instructions.
Pretty sure I can figure it out, but I don't mind asking for directions.
skip 427 at comcast dot net
I'm going to take pictures of the build if anyone is interested.
Including finishing the oak bed pieces.

Skip,

I'd love to see pictures of the build!

Kindly,
Danny

If I had been working on a short bed, I would have bought the kit. The cost of the Oak alone is as much as the pre-cut kits available in magazines. I would have purchased a kit rather than cutting one from scratch, except they did not offer a kit for the Long Bed Flareside. Cost of Wood plus Stain plus miscellaneous was way more than the kit price in magazines. I enjoyed the project, but I spent 12 or more hours on the project.

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As hard as I tried to avoid mistakes, after selecting the nicest side of all boards, and cutting slots for stainless, I realized that the old steel and the new stainless were different dimensions, and my cuts were wrong, so I flipped them all to save the $300 of oak from the bonfire.

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Cutting the largest diameter hole first to the proper depth, I then drilled each smaller diameter step to its correct depth, then drilled the through-hole last. This allowed me to use the same centering point for each smaller Forstner bit.

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Getting the dimensions correct, and lining up all the original holes in the frame to the new wood would have been impossible (very difficult) if I did not have the old original boards to follow as a pattern. I kept them to measure widths (there were at least two different width boards), position of holes for bolts, and width and depth of cuts for stainless rails.

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One of the other members, Hunter's 64, posted a link to a website on one of the other threads for a flush mount gas cap. Once you get into that website, you can see that there are dozens of domestic and exotic wood kits available for many models from that same company.

http://bedwoodandparts.com/i-2895146-19 ... ickup.html



Ash $565.95
Birds Eye Maple $1299.95
Black Walnut $903.95
Cherry $903.95
Curly Maple $999.95
Cypress $565.95
Flamed Birch $903.95
Hard Maple $711.95
Hickory $565.95
Poplar $565.95
Quartersawn Red Oak $999.95
Quartersawn White Oak $999.95
Red Oak $349.95
White Oak $646.95
Wormy Maple $711.95
------ Exotic Species: ------
African Mahogany $903.95
Bamboo (Horizontal or Vertical) $1218.95
Bloodwood $1469.95
Brazilian Cherry $903.95
Bubinga $1469.95
Burmese Teak $2172.95
Canary Wood $1276.95
Cocobolo $2422.95
Goncalo Alves $1469.95
Honduras Mahogany $1326.95
Ipe (Iron Wood) $1553.95
Iroko $903.95
Lacewood $1553.95
Leopard Wood $1553.95
Lyptus $903.95
Morado $1969.95
Paduak $903.95
Peruvian Walnut $999.95
Purple Heart $903.95
Sapele $903.95
Plantation Teak $1634.95
Wenge $1492.95
Zebra Wood $1492.95

Looks great, Dan! Well done.

Anyone have any photos of their wood side rails they can share?

Kindly,
Danny

Danny. You asked how to finish the wood too, right?
I'm in the process of finishing the oak bed boards I just got in from Mar-K in Oklahoma City.
First, the quality is as good as it gets. If you can't or don't have the time to make your own, I highly recommend them.
I used a sanding block with 180 grit on the boards and radiused the edges so they won't splinter.
Once its smooth, lay them out and use a wet towel to wet the tops of the boards. Let them dry a couple of hours feel the "hairs" that have risen up from that smooth surface and then re-sand.
Wet and sand a couple of times until you get all those little wood hairs knocked down because they'll raise when you put your sealer/ finish on just like with the water and ruin your finished surface.
(the final stage I'm going to use is to take a single edge razor blade and scrape the last of the hairs down.)
When you're applying the finish, spray several thin, wet coats and let them dry before you put on your finish coat on. Several people have recommended Val-spar Marine urethane with the extra UV protection so that's what I'll be using. Don't forget to soak the ends, sides, and bottoms too.
Basically, that's it. Good luck buddy. And Merry Christmas to everybody.

Skip,

Thanks for advice! I appreciate it. I'll post some pictures when it's done. My next project is the new gas tank and then i'll do the rails and bed. My dad has some santos mahogany we're going to use to make the side rails. I'm excited about it.

Hope you have a great Christmas,
Danny