What are your guys thoughts on making a wooden bed liner to put in my 1995 F150? Personally I think it would give it a more rustic look but I don't know... Help me out!
This is my truck for reference

 

A wooden bed liner? I think it would weigh a lot, take up cargo space and no one will see it unless walking next to the truck. You must have a lot of free time to invest in fitting a wood liner around the wheel wells a bed sides.

 

I am planning on using my truck this summer for photo opportunities and will also be selling flowers out of the bed. Just trying to have a little fun as a college student and make a little money doing something I enjoy😁

do you have any suggestions?

 

I don’t see the point of making a bed liner out of wood. The wood will also retain moisture. Are you going to take pictures of the inside of the bed because no one will see it from this picture


If you are talking about a wood floor like they had in truck flare side trucks or trucks from 40’s and 50’s, there are already kits to do that.

 

I am planning on making it removable to lessen risk to moisture. On top of that I am going to treat and seal the wood to lengthen it’s life.

 

Do not worry about adding wood for the "feel".

It's just going to be weight & rust.

Watch this:

 

You seem dead set on doing this so why did you ask for opinions?

 

a plastic bed liner is almost unremovable due to it's size and awkwardness.
now make it out of wood and it will become way to heavy and large for one person to move. probably will be a 3 or 4 man job to take it out and put back in.
i would go with spray in liner that you can color shade to your choice.

 

Ignore the naysayers. You do you. And I think it's a cool idea.

I'd use redwood or cypress. You can stain these and they really don't need a sealer. Both will fade somewhat over time in the sun, so expect to re-stain them once in a while.

I assume you will have the long parts running front-to-back, and some sort of cross-piece to fasten these together. A beveled cross-piece mortised to fit the open end (at the rear) could provide a functional and attractive, ramped transition up to the rails.

If you use solid cross pieces you might have trouble getting it out unless you make it in two sections (a left and a right, with an overlap in the middle to hide the seam). But this will produce the most rigidity and you can place the rails close together.

If you use braided nylon, or other flexible strapping, you can roll it up (side to side) and stand it in a corner of your garage when not needed. Velcro bands or bungie cords can keep it together in storage. You'll need to leave space between each rail to allow for the rollup. It also won't be as rigid and you might have to make some adjustments to get around/over the bed bolts and other things. Matching spacing to the grooves in the bed might be good, or not, you'll have to see how that works for your plan.

Good luck!

 

Synthetic wood is an option if all you need is the look.

 

Thank you for all the suggestions! These will definitely help me when I start constructing it😁

 

I had a wood bed liner in my '04 SD. it was very tough, and handy for a work truck. I screwed down various wood blocking to stop things from rolling around, mounts, made cribs, etc. It lasted for a long time. Handles awkward loads very well, distributes the weight. I had a lot of heavy (2,000#) odd ball machinery loads in this bed, with only a few sharp angle points touching the plywood, that probably would've damaged the steel or worn through palstic pretty quick. Tail gate was covered too. 3/4 ply iirc.

Pulled it out to put in a spray in bed liner, which I didn't like. Im not a fan of the spray in stuff, almost impossible to load and unload things, wont slide, fork lifts cant push things on it without tearing it up. It looks nce though. Personally I like plastic or wood for working uses. These wood ones are fairly common in western Canada.

I thought when we pulled it out it would be nothing but a rusty mess under it (Didnt get a pic of it until it was sanded down). But it looked brand new under it, bieleve it or not. It was in there for quite a few years, always outdoors, dont rember how long, probably 8-10 ish yrs. Fair job to make one though, and youre not pulling it out with taking it all apart. It wasn't there to look pretty either though. It can also leave you with splinters if you're not careful when it starts getting too worn and beat up.

I had a real nice hardwood floor in my '58 Chevy. Only problem is, you dont want to put anything in it, or even walk in it, its too nice. It'll get wrecked pretty quick. And takes some time to keep the wood looking nice.

EDIT: Great for a show truck or strictly working/industrial use truck, not so sure I'd want wood for a personal daily use truck. I thought about it for my '96, but stuck with plastic. My '06 has a spray in liner. Both for personal use are great.

Food for though for you. Good luck with it.

I dug up a couple pics.

 

Thank you so much! How difficult is it to pull the plastic out? This is what my bed looks like right now

The plastic isn’t perfect and is lifting in spots, would that make it easier to remove?

 

Unless its been screwed in somewhere, just pull the sides in from under the bed rails, and it pulls straight back and out.

Plastic does tend to warp in the sun after time. Ive screwed them in to the bed to hold them down when they do that.

that liner looks in nice shape, not beat up.

 

Ok, thank you!