has anyone measured the width of the wood planks for the bed?

im looking to make my own out of composite decking to be a little different and it would hold up much better

 

It varies, you have to measure the holes in the cross strips. Some beds have two narrow pieces on either side and standard 5/4 x 6 inch in the middle. Problem is, a standard board won't work out, they need to have a rabbit joint on each side of each board so the strips are recessed. It's not so much to recess the strips, but when you get to the sides and front of the bed, it's setup for a certain thickness, and it's the thinner rabbit joint thickness that fits.

I ran into all this when doing my 53 f100 bed, and they say all the beds up thru the mid 80's are basically the same, but do some measuring and see if I am correct. I tried to put full thickness boards in and they would not work, so I took a router and stepped the edges.

 

alright that makes sense, i didnt really think about that, i just threw a piece of plywood down to pass inspection because there was nothing left of the original boards, and i was trying to get a head start on the spring and get things at least together to do it, but looks like i have to wait till spring

thanks!

 

Dimensions are on the the Mar-K website, I cut exactly to this for my 82 and they fit like a glove.

http://www.mar-k.com/bedwooddimensions.pdf

 

thanks that is exactly what i was looking for!

 

I think I got 2-1x4s, 4-1x6s, and 2-1x8s, then routed the edges slightly to fit the metal strips. I just used white pine without many knots and used an exterior stain and sealer

Good luck with the project

 

Me and my dad made the bed for our ford and it came out pretty good!

 

A little bit of torch work there? Looks good, especially with the color of the truck.

Quit giving me ideas

 

that looks amazing! i think im going to wait until spring and order the strips and then figure out what sizes i will need

 

The pictures have jogged my memory on the board sizes:
the 3 middle boards are 1x6s and the one next to them are 1x8s and you take a 1x8 and cut down to make the two outer boards. You would need 3-1x6s and 3-1x8s for the job

 

i just went out and measured and it seems like the 3 middle boards are 8" apart, the 2 outer ones are 10" and the ones around the fenders are 6" apart

is there a 2 inch spacing between the boards for the bolts?

 

The spacing is only around 1/2". There is a "ledge" or dado that the metal strips sit on to secure the boards. I forget exact dims off hand.

 

alright thats what i thought i was suprised that the 2 outer board holes were 10 inches apart

 

This will give you an idea of the shape of the wood and the dado that was mentioned for the metal strips.


http://www.pros-pick.com/products/bedwood.jpg

http://www.lmctruck.com/features/ca/images/CA9BR.jpg

 

alright things are starting to make sense now, thanks that diagram really clears things up