This is a pretty common trick for a "vintage" look, but you've actually got it backwards. You soak the steel wool in VINEGAR first. Vinegar causes steel to rust rapidly and deteriorate. Once you break down the steel wool, you then add the WATER to dilute it down and use it like a stain. You can get a nice light gray, a black, or even a rusty red depending on how long you soak the steel wool in the vinegar before diluting the mixture.

 

Ebonizing or fuming oak dark grey to black is easily done. Build an air tight "tent" out of polyethylene plastic sheet with minimal extra volume but large enough that the wood doesn't touch the plastic. Use short lengths of pvc pipe to space the wood off the floor. Place a shallow pan of plain household ammonia from the grocery store in the tent (next to, not on top) with the wood and seal it. Leave it for several hours or overnight depending on how dark you want it. Overnight will give it a jet black color. Be a little careful handling the ammonia, the fumes can take your breath away (a small amount briefly held under the nose is "smelling salts" meant to make even an unconscious person gasp deeply) and make your eyes burn. If you spill it just leave the area until the fumes dissipate.

 

Here's a very useful compilation of information:
http://www.clubfte.com/users/earl/Re...%20Information
about 1/2 way down is bed wood board dimensions and shapes.

 

rhopper Not to ignore your question. I know that some have used composite decking for bed wood. Plastic (composite wood is plastic no matter what they call it) has a much higher coefficient of expansion than wood, and it expands in all directions equally (but only from temperature not moisture), so you need to leave more space and provisions for movement than for wood. One downfall of the decking material is that it gets quite hot in the sun.

 

Of course, I am going to be ripping the boards to the factory width of 5 3/4". I assumed that this much was understood. My goal is pretty much to return the truck to a condition similar to that which it was in when it came off the assembly line. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am pretty sure that I will stop short of painting the wood along with the rest of the body and bed. I am certain that the original boards were flatsawn. Quartersawn, while a much better cut (better behavior with moisture content changes) would be way too expensive, because fewer boards with useful widths (for my purpose, at least) are available per log. Protecting the wood (both sides) with some kind of penetrating sealer (even linseed oil) goes a long way in limiting the movement of the wood with changes in moisture content. At 5 3/4", I'm not too worried about cupping, though I will heed the advice to place the "frown down". Just a note on sealers, I would caution anyone from using Thompson Water Seal on their wood beds. It is pretty much various waxes disolved in very potent solvents. During application, those solvents can do a number to a paint job. The same caution probably applies to other sealers. And as far as clear urethanes, I understand that the first coat may do some penetrating, but subsequent applications do not. They only ride on top of the first coat. And the bond between coats is as much mechanical as it is chemical. So, subsequent applications need to be applied on the sanded surface of the coat underneath. Around here (central Vermont) it's getting hard to even kind urethane that isn't water based. I have no idea how this finish holds up outdoors, but I suspect it's not too good. So, I will probably use the linseed / turpentine mix that I had so much success with on my plywood strips bed. I know that the wood will turn grey, there will be some staining and maybe I'll get a crack or two, but it's a pretty tough truck. I think it can handle it. I intend to use it as a truck when it's back on the road. I just won't be driving it in the winter. At least not around here. The first few scartches in the body and the bed will probably break my heart, but it's a truck. I'll get over it.

 

Great attitude. Looks like you have a good handle on the situation. So glad you aren't going to drive it in the winter there. Spent two winters remodling a house in N. Pomfret back in the 70's and my '66 scout was never the same afterwards.

 

I thought I had a plan but after reading these posts (twice) I'm rethinking my plans. I was thinking of using some 2x12 used fir that is possibly 75 years old or more. I haven't looked at it for awhile but I'm pretty sure it has very few knots if any. I have had this lumber in my basement for about 20 yrs. I was going to plane it down to about 1 1/8" or 1 1/4" for this deck that I built.


After reading the info here I'm thinking this lumber is to wide and will probably warp.to easy. Maybe it would be better to sell it and get some 2x8 fir and use it instead. It would probably be a shame to use the 2x12s for a truck deck anyway. When I bolt the metal strips down should the bolts go through the cross members or should I use some light channel iron run across under and between the cross members to bolt the strips to and let the boards more or less float on the cross members?

 

AX: Thanks for sharing that stuff from Earl's World. With regard to this thread: the bed wood information is going to save me a lot of time (and probably headaches), especially information on rabbet depth and width, as well as hole locations.

 

jvmcc, your take on the finish/sealer for the wood is good. You might want to add some varnish (you can get it with UV inhibitors) to your oil based sealer. It adds some body that will help close up the cells and stop more moisture from doing its thing (rot). Woodies used varnish, with the first several coats thinned with oils and thinner to penetrate the wood more. Some of the coach builders put as many as 6 coats on, the first several the thinned varnish, the last straight varnish. Of course they had to be recoated often to keep from getting gray.

 

Nice, Top. Does your pup help?

 

He helps take up space, and makes me watch where I am going.

 

I find this thread very interesting. For giggles and laughs I'll put a couple pictures of a weathered deck board on my flatbed 1956 F-350. I seriously doubt if the pictured board is original. Perhaps axracer or some other knowledgeable wood worker can ID the wood. It is a coarse grain, fairly soft wood and shows no signs of cupping, warpage. Pictured is one of the edge boards that is bolted along the one side, and one bolt in the front and rear cross members. The other side of the board floats freely under the skid strip. Pictures that I posted earlier in this thread show the entire bed surface where various boards have broken sections, missing sections but no signs of warpage.
From experience I know that if wood decides it is going to cup or warp those metal skid strips would not prevent that.

 

I wonder if that's Hemlock?

 

GLR: it looks like oak to me. You've got an F-350. Are the beds wider than the F-100's? Your wood is wider than the 6" o.c. found in the smaller trucks.

 

Yes, this is a 9' original script stake bed. Width overall is 87 1/4" outside of the bed frame. The truck is DRW, BTW.
Just throwing this into the discussion for the fact that these wide boards have no signs of warping or cupping. ??????