Is there a kit available for a wooden bed in a 67 f-100 styleside? not stepside. If not, how difficult and costly wood it be to fabricate one? Has anyone tried this? I love the look of a high gloss wooden bed and would love to use that in my project truck. Any help would be great. Thanks

 

The biggest cost is the oak. What I would do, which was done to my truck before I bought it, is put in a sheet of 1" outside/exposure rated plywood. Bolt the plywood with grade 5/8 fasteners to the steel cross members. 3/8-1/2 diameter bolts should be okay.

I would paint all sides of the plywood so grease and stuff does not stick to it and so it does not delaminate. Then nail the oak to that or bolt it down with stainless steel countersunk bolts. 1" thick (5/4) oak decking would work great. Then use clear silicon RTV to seal all bed/side edges.

 

I built a simple wood bed for my '70 F100 back in the early 90's. I used treated 2x12's for the floor sitting on 4x4's for crossmembers. I bolted it down using carriage bolts just like the original bed.

I built stake sides that were 2x4's that attached to a 2x10 that ran down the side of the bed. I had a small cutout for the wheel opening. It was simple, and fairly nice looking(for a wood bed).

(since we were building a deck on the house, the wood was there )

It lasted a few years, I found a nice original bed for it and sold the wood bed to a fellow that made a trailer out of it.

 

If you go to mar-k's website, they have a 73-79 style truck that has a wood bed in it. It is in the gallery. This is what I plan to do because my bed sides are perfect but the floor is thin from being full of damp leafs for many years in the pasture. I haven't gotten to contact them yet but it is defintely possible.

MOSES

 

I was wondering if you could give me the web address to this guy's site. I am very interested in seeing pictures or even getting more info about the wood bed and how. Thank you for your reply!

 

The website it is on is www.mar-k.com The pic is of a 79 f150 4x4. The theory is the same. Go to customer trucks and keep going till you find it.

MOSES

 

I just looked over the site and must say the beds look great. I placed an order for the catalog and am antisipating it's arival. Thank you

 

I've got some Armstrong swift-lock laminate wood flooring left over from my house. I was thinking this stuff would work the newer stuff is approved for use in Kitchens and bathrooms. you just need to glue the panels together. if you then covered it with a nice sealant, it would look sharp and repel water and other fluids. this stuff is harder than any wood I've dealt with. You could put this over plywood or other substrate.

 

Gtex, that is how my bed was done by the previous owner. He used tongue and groove parque (?) flooring stapled and blind nailed to the plywood. Kind of looked like a mini-basketball court.

 

You might want to think twice about the laminate for a couple of reasons:

• Once scratched, next to impossible to fix. You can't sand it out like real wood to refinish it.
• Laminate usually has an mdf or similar substrate, which can absorb moisture and cause delamination.

Some laminate is approved for kitchens and bathrooms, and it is getting better and better each year with new glues coming out to prevent moisture from getting to the underside, yet if as in my case with my 3 day old kitchen floor, water gets in from the sides (new kitchen...should've tightened that sink hose a bit more ) it delaminates almost immediately.

It is pretty amazing stuff, extremely hard surface (the dog doesn't destroy it like hardwood), but if damaged or if it gets wet in any way...time to redo the whole thing.

Just some thoughts from someone who learned the hard way (and ended up with replacing a 3 day old kitchen floor because of a very small bit of water leaking....). Then again, if the truck never sees rain, or humidity/dampness...it might be alright....

 

hey, what do you guys think about putting in a sheet of diamod plate metal instead of the original oak bed? i know it's not stock, but i've heard of it being done before and supposedly it looks really sharp. Bryan

 

It looks great! The drawback is cost because for a bed you really want to use aluminum and not steel. Plus, 1/4 Aluminum is way lighter then steel. If you live in a salt state I would paint or undercoat the underside the diamond plate.

 

Check out this bed:

 

Not bad... I think I want to just do the bottom though and leave the sides as they are.

 

Diamond plate looks way cool, but things tend to "stick" on it more than just a smooth sheet of metal. If you're going for looks, it's great! For work, it's not that great.