Hey guys, I'm sure this has come up before, but I did some searching and still couldn't find what I was really looking for. I have a 96 longbed and the previous owner replaced the bed with a rust free one, the only issue is the bed is gray and truck is black. I'm planning to paint the bed and put it back on this spring, but that's a separate project. I've always liked flatbeds and I got to thinking, maybe I'll buy or build a flatbed to put on my truck so I can still drive it while I'm painting my other bed. I plan on pulling my bed to paint it so I wouldnt be able to drive my truck otherwise. It shouldnt take long to paint the bed, but I've never done any auto painting before and my projects always seem to take longer than they should, so I imagine this one will be no different. I did a little bit of CL searching today and found several flatbeds for under $500. If I buy one I could either sell it when I'm finished painting my bed, or hang on to it in case I decide I want to use it again. Now I'm sort of toying with the idea of building my own flatbed. I know it's pretty common and there are a lot of build threads out there about this, but I was wondering if anyone on here has ever done it. If so, how much did it cost you? was it worth it? what materials did you use? etc... Any pictures would be great also. I'm pretty good with CADD software, so I could probably draft up my own set of plans. I'd prefer to build it out of mostly wood since I'm better with wood than metal, but I would consider doing a metal frame and such. Any advice, pictures etc... would be great, thanks.

 

You are getting awefully involved for a days worth of down time to paint the bed

 

i agree with Brad, in the time it would take to build a flatbed you could have yous painted

 

man, i totally want to trash my truck bed and get a flat bed, i love how the flat beds look on this generation of ford. Hopefully if you build one, put some pictures up.

 

Ditto with Brad and Fdude64. You would spend more time building the flatbed, pulling the box, installing the flat, and then reversing the procedure to put the box back on than it will take to scuff it, fix any dings, and shoot it.

 

You guys are probably right. The body of the bed is in great shape, so there's not body work to do or anything. I did want to clean up and paint the frame and install a heavier duty class IV hitch while the bed is off just because it will be easy to access the frame then, but I couldn't do that with a flatbed on it anyway.

 

Flatbeds are useful when the stuff you haul (or want to haul) doesn't fit easily in the factory bed.

An example might be a pair of ATV's.

The advantage of bedsides is you can haul stuff that's not self-contanied (like a pair of ATV's) such as pea gravel, garbage to take to the dump, sand, topsoil, and so on.

With a flatbed, if you often haul home construction material, you have to tie/strap it down too. You certainly don't want to lose your expensive home depot buckets of drywall mud or sheets of plywood because you took a corner too fast.

If you want to copy a decent design, take a ride to Home Depot and Lowes and look at thier $19.95 rental trucks for hauling materials home - they're flat, they have hinged sides and tailgates, and they're mounted high enough that the bed is truly flat without wheel well arches inside.

 

After totaling my F350 here is what i did.This flatbed took 80-100 hours and about$1300 in materials. I do have a lot of detail photos and drawings if anyone is interested. I have a word document that is about 2/3 complete defining the process. If there is any interest I will start a threa

 

Here it is with the new flatbed, almost complete

 

I decided against the flatbed, but man, that looks really nice.

 

I`m interested I have a 54 f250 that I what a flat bed on, and yours looks great.
thanks

 

damn fine job there.
wood species & stain details please?

 

The floor planking is 2x12 cedar landscaping plank and the sides are 2x6 redwood. I used a natural clear sealer (like you would use on a patio deck) that i got at ACE hardware, sorry I forgot the brand name

 

If you really want a flatbed. There are many old flatbed trucks in the pull your own parts junk yards. CHEAPER than the cost of materials to make one much less the time involved.

 

Why not? I've seen it done a lot to include new chassis cabs on their way to getting their new shinny work beds. After pulling the bed toss the bumper back on, figure out some way to hold up the fuel necks and zip tie some trailer lights to the back frame rails. The only problem I see is you may have to rig up some mud flaps to keep road trash off of the cars around you.