I believe the F1-F3 trucks did have wood stakes.
Mark

 

Just learned something. Thanks, Stu.

 

It's too dark here to post a picture, but the stiles have routed edges and center. I'll see if I have a file picture. Stu

Here's the reproduction kit from Google Images. Stu

 

Looking good Joe.
I recently bought one of those pumps from Harbor Freight. It probably won't last long, but it was very cheep and worked good pumping some gas the other day.

So on that reproduction stake kit. It looks cute that the stake side opens up and it looks like you just swing it open like a door. But, don't you have to remove the side to get it out of the pockets and then hang it back to have it look like the second picture? I think I would just lean it up against the side of the truck when needing the opening. Yeah, nit picky, but I seem to be getting more and more like that as I get older.

 

The door is on a sliding rod, and lifts out of the stake pockets to open. The top corner bracket holds it shut. Stu

 

From looking at my dealer full color brochures, the stakes for F100's and F250's stake bed racks were made from "straight grained hard woods". The F350's and up used metal stakes. They were also higher than the smaller trucks.

 

The bed is actually 96.5" or 8 feet long. It's off a '48 or '49 F3. I knew I had seen wooden stake sides on them somewhere.

 

Yes, the pump I bought through Amazon was cheap too. And I can tell you pumping gear oil through it is good exercise for your pectoral muscles!

I was wondering the same thing about the stake sides on that reproduction kit. It should have to be lifted out of the pockets to allow it to swing open.

 

It's called a 7.5' because of inside load dimensions. Stu

 

So, that would equate to what Stu said about F2 and F3 using wood and F4 and up using metal stakes.

Well, I'm using wood on my F4 Sport. And they will be much shorter than stock.

 

Ah, ok. I get it now. Thanks for the info Stu.

 

Since I can't afford the original style rubber floor mat at this time, I decided to put in some cheap carpeted mats in the truck for now. Hey, they were $7 on Amazon. I got tired of kicking the master cylinder inspection hole rubber cover loose.

 

Looks dark side to me. I've been told it is a slippery slope. What is next, white wall tires?

 

I think I've gone somewhat to the dark side before the floor mats. No purist would put a script bed from an F3 on an F4.

 

So, in keeping with my diversion from factory available options, since I'm using the F3 script bed I decided not to have full height stakes.

I've seen plenty of examples of stake sides much shorter than the originals, and I like the look of almost all of them better.

Considering this truck's working days are long gone, I decided to make some short stakes just for looks. Well, I may use them to hold the flags in the next parade...

Here's my start. This will probably stretch out over quite some time, since I don't have nice wood in the budget. I already had the frame from the first bed I made, and since I don't want the stakes painted black, removing that paint was my first step after cutting the stakes to size.

This is the wood I used to make the stakes, It's from the other bed frame.



And here's the stakes freshly removed of the black paint.



I haven't decided how to shape the stake tops yet. I'll probably fit 2 1X6 side boards to the stakes.

The lower sides will allow me to keep the existing mirrors, which are also not stock, but which I like. And I haven't decided what to do for a "tailgate" yet.

I guess next will be a SBC and bucket seats...