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Anyone out there replace the bed of a 48 F1. I have one that the floor of the bed is metal. I want to go to a wood bed. They just look better. It appears to be spot welded in many locations. I see my options as --cut the floor off flush to the bed side and have the wood cover it or cut all the spot welds off. Ideas?
At the last F100 Grand National Show there was a vendor offering aluminum bed floors that had various coatings that looked like wood and other materials. This seems like a good middle ground between the durability of metal and the appearance of wood, A quick web search should turn up some resources...
Anyone out there replace the bed of a 48 F1. I have one that the floor of the bed is metal. I want to go to a wood bed. They just look better. It appears to be spot welded in many locations. I see my options as --cut the floor off flush to the bed side and have the wood cover it or cut all the spot welds off. Ideas?
The correct, and probably simplest way to do it is to drill out the spot welds. After 70 years they're probably not too tough and they should come apart fairly easy. Some might break apart just by using a chisel or screwdriver. Just don't get too crazy and damage the metal you want to save. I would highly recommend using a spot weld cutter so you don't drill through the bed side on the ones that are actually still stuck.
Keep in mind the wood underneath the metal floor is tongue and groove (iirc) and not the same as the wood with skid strips in the later beds. Lots of folks have done the conversion because it does look good and the metal floor is usually not salvageable for anything you want to look nice.
About 10 years ago I removed the original metal bed floor in my 49 F-1. I had essentially no rust in the bed but the floor resembled a bag of walnuts from use/abuse. I had purchased many years earlier a replacement properly ribbed metal floor (No longer available) and installed the new floor. Getting the new metal floor with some semblance of being flat was a real challenge. I used a spot weld cutter drilling from the inside or a die grinded at the spots, not penetrating the bedsides. I replaced the original wood that Ford had under the metal with oak.
About 10 years ago I removed the original metal bed floor in my 49 F-1. I had essentially no rust in the bed but the floor resembled a bag of walnuts from use/abuse. I had purchased many years earlier a replacement properly ribbed metal floor (No longer available) and installed the new floor. Getting the new metal floor with some semblance of being flat was a real challenge. I used a spot weld cutter drilling from the inside or a die grinded at the spots, not penetrating the bedsides. I replaced the original wood that Ford had under the metal with oak.
