I'm going to say that you will want to rethink your color choice. You want either aluminum silver or a flat white inside the lens area for good light reflection.

 

I agree. I have some Argent Silver left from the grille, but I think white would be a better reflector. I may try both to see which is brighter.

 

Instead of painting the inside, you may want to line it with a product called Bare-Metal Foil. It's used in the model car hobby. It's a sheet of advesive back foil that is very thin and can be contoured easily. It's very reflective and used to simulate chrome when applied to moldings on model cars. You can buy it at any well stocked hobby store or online.

Bare-Metal® is Used for Detailing Model Cars, and Aircraft - Bare-Metal Foil Co.

 

Actually, after my last post, I was considering the reflectivity of foil. This is a good idea. Thanks.

 

What to do while waiting on parts?

I decided to get started on the stake bed. It's going to be a lot of work, so I will be working on it for quite some time. The first thing to do is get rid of all the rotten wood, and that would be about 95% of it. Worms and/or termites have eaten a lot of it, so I wanted to get that into the trash ASAP. Since the bed strips are mostly rust, I was not concerned with damaging them, and used my recip saw to remove the wood. Then on to the rusted bolts. Since I won't be reusing any of them, I removed them... some unscrewed, some sheared off. But they're off now. And it took almost as long to get the caked mud loose from the side (left of pic) as it did to remove the wood.

Before: I also removed the concrete "tongue weight".



And after. Still have lots of smaller bolts to remove along with the rusted bed strips:



I can't understand why this bed had the wood strips in it unless it was a normal bed that had the steel plate welded on afterward.

And I don't know why I would replace all that wood. I think I only need support under the existing steel supports Am I wrong about that? I'll never be putting any real weight on this bed anyway.

I plan to have it blasted and powder coated eventually.

 

I believe you'll find the steel plate was installed later. Not OEM. Depending on how far you want to get into a proper restoration, you may want to remove it and replace the wood properly.

 

Well, the bed is not from a Ford truck. It was a freebie, and I don't think it would look correct even if I removed the top plate and replaced the wood.

I saw a bed on FTE made by the same company a while back, but shorter and on a F1 F2 or F3 (don't know which) single rear wheel truck. It has the top plate on it. I messaged the OP, but he hasn't been back on in a few years.

I'd rather build a bed like Joe harleymsn built for his F5, but I don't have the money right now or a planer.

 

Ooops, my bad. I didn't realize it wasn't an original bed. If you said it before, I didn't remember seeing the memo. It looked good upside-down.

 

What will support the center part of the steel plate if there is no wood there?

Those beds are aftermarket, or dealer installed.....I have one. It also has steel plate welded on. They are very similar to the Ford script beds.
How hard would it be to remove the steel plate? Certainly would lighten it up a lot....

 

My thought was to support the top with wood strips under all the steel frame, but not all the way across like it was. That would also make it quite a bit lighter, and I think it would be strong. The way it was, you couldn't see the wood anyway (unless it was upside down). I think pickups with the bed kits are beautiful, but this bed will never look like that.

And cutting the top off would leave a lip above the wood bed, which might be normal, for all I know. I've never seen one of these beds in person without the steel plate, so I don't know how it should look.

 

Here are a few pictures of my 9' script stake bed. I have it up working on the cab, readying it for paint.
The cross members are roughly two feet apart and support the wood decking. The decking is between 1 1/8" and 1 1/4" thick. I am going back with 2" x 10"s and notch a fraction so the wood fits flush with top of the front, rear and side steel frame. Bolts run thru the steel top strips, between the wood decking and thru the steel frame cross members. IMO, you could make that bed you have look like it belonged there. The hold down metal strips are available aftermarket. The Ford tractors of the 1950s use the same script as the Ford script beds and decals and templates are readily available. Holler if you need any detail pictures or dimensions.

I went back and looked at your pictures. JMO, but unless you have the fore and aft boards as support, your steel will not hold much of anything without buckling. Go wood, about $100. for decking in my neck of the woods. Interesting, too, is that your bed has nine steel strips and ten random width boards, same as mine. Like someone else suggested, I believe your steel was added over the wood. You can probably verify this when you flip the frame. It appears you have an inch or two difference in heights between the cross members and the ends and sides for the decking.

 

Thanks for the pics. I will have to give this some thought. But I have plenty of time to decide what to do with the bed.

I think the wood beds are real beauties, and add a lot to the truck's looks. Just not sure I have the skills to make the wood fit the bed correctly. I have a router table and a table saw, so I guess theoretically I could make the boards fit. I was given a planer/jointer years ago that I never used even once, so I gave it away to make more room in the garage. DOH!

And I found a source (Carpenter) for eleven metal bed strips long enough to hold the wood in place. If anyone knows a better source, I'd love to hear it.

So maybe I will just cut off the top plate and try to make something beautiful out of the bed.

I don't think I can talk Joe harleymsn into giving me his...

 

You need to check with Bruce Horkey. They can provide you with everything you need to make your bed a thing of beauty. I'm sure it's where Carpenter gets the stuff to resell.
Home page Horkey wood and Parts

 

Actually Carpenter and a LOT of other outfits get their boxes and metal parts from Dan Carpenter DAN CARPENTER'S SPECIALTIES,1951-52, 1953-56, 1957-72 Ford Truck Beds (no relation)

I'm not sure if Dan supplies the 12' bed strips as Carpenter's is the only one that list them. They are not cheap and the shipping actually cost about as much as the strips do. I had considered the strips when I was doing mine but decided against it. When I looked into them, my plan was to have Carpenters bring them to the F100 Supernationals to save the shipping cost.

 

Horkey has 12 foot stainless bedstrips for $24, FWIW. S&H is up there, though. (Not sure what ya paid, Joe?)

Like most instances, it's a combination of sources to get the best bang for yer buck.

I'm starting to compile a list for my flatbed rebuild, so I'm finding this with interest.