wooden beds
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New User
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 21
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From: south ccarolina
wooden beds
what is the best way to replace the floor of the bed in my 67 f100 looking forward to some input from you guys, and gals. and i want to replace it with wooden floor
Last edited by 67red; Dec 11, 2004 at 09:33 AM. Reason: add more
5th Wheeling
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 49
Likes: 1
From: middle tennessee
MarKay
I put a MarKay oak bed with polished stainless rails in my '70 stepside back in the late 1980's - It was beee-ootiful. It lasted about 2 years before it needed refinishing. The truck has a nose down attitude and I had to drill holes through the wood for it to drain the rainwater out. It now has a piece of plywood with astroturf over the rotted wood bed. So many holes draining is no longer a problem 
My advice -- if you can store it indoors, consider a wooden bed. If you are going to put a tonneau cover on it, consider a wooden bed. If it's a daily driver, think hard about it.
I still have the truck and am re-restoring it. I plan to keep the "wooden" bed, but I am considering the new fake wood that is used for outdoor decking. I have not even looked into it yet, so if anyone else has input, I would love to hear it.
My truck will continue to be a beast of burden, so I would like to put a tonneau cover over the bed. If anyone has thoughts or experience putting a soft cover over an old stepside with the tube rails, again, I would appreciate your thoughts.
BTW - those polished stainless rails still look sharp nearly 20 years later!
Thanks,
Mike in Tennessee
My advice -- if you can store it indoors, consider a wooden bed. If you are going to put a tonneau cover on it, consider a wooden bed. If it's a daily driver, think hard about it.
I still have the truck and am re-restoring it. I plan to keep the "wooden" bed, but I am considering the new fake wood that is used for outdoor decking. I have not even looked into it yet, so if anyone else has input, I would love to hear it.
My truck will continue to be a beast of burden, so I would like to put a tonneau cover over the bed. If anyone has thoughts or experience putting a soft cover over an old stepside with the tube rails, again, I would appreciate your thoughts.
BTW - those polished stainless rails still look sharp nearly 20 years later!
Thanks,
Mike in Tennessee
Post Fiend
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 13,873
Likes: 3
From: Atlanta GA
Pressure treated wood, but the old stuff is not available so you have to suffer with the new stuff. A 2"x12"x12' is about $20, so it would cost about $50 to do the bed floor. The best way to attach the wood is with stainless steel cap screws countersunk below the bed surface.
Personally, I used grade 5/8 for the bed attachments and grade 8 to attach the bed to the frame. If you think you need a bit more support under the bed so the wood does not bend, then use 3"x1.5 x 3/16 C-channel. That is the size of the folded sheet metal cross members that hold the stock bed on,
The nicest bed surface in my opinion is probably a sheet of polished 1/4 aluminum diamond plate. Highly polished it looks great and is very hard to dent and is much lighter then steel and you do not have to paint it. You can scratch it with concrete blocks and such, but, it polishes right out unless it is a deep groove.
Personally, I used grade 5/8 for the bed attachments and grade 8 to attach the bed to the frame. If you think you need a bit more support under the bed so the wood does not bend, then use 3"x1.5 x 3/16 C-channel. That is the size of the folded sheet metal cross members that hold the stock bed on,
The nicest bed surface in my opinion is probably a sheet of polished 1/4 aluminum diamond plate. Highly polished it looks great and is very hard to dent and is much lighter then steel and you do not have to paint it. You can scratch it with concrete blocks and such, but, it polishes right out unless it is a deep groove.
5th Wheeling
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 49
Likes: 1
From: middle tennessee
67 Red -- If there's no bed in it at all, there shouldn't be anything to hurt. I drove mine with the box completely removed for quite a while with no problems. (other than no weight back there --easy to spin tires -- wouldn't do it in snow!)
I was going to put mine back as a wooden bed, but I am now thinking of Rebocardo's idea. I think I'll look for some gallery pix & make a choice.
This would be a good place to take a lot of pictures & post the results for others. I haven't done a complete search on this yet, so maybe there are already some out there.
Good luck!!
I was going to put mine back as a wooden bed, but I am now thinking of Rebocardo's idea. I think I'll look for some gallery pix & make a choice.
This would be a good place to take a lot of pictures & post the results for others. I haven't done a complete search on this yet, so maybe there are already some out there.
Good luck!!
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,988
Likes: 14
From: Travelers Rest SC
The problem with wood beds is protecting them from the elements. Oak in particular does not hold varnish well. One way is to use epoxy like they use on boats to saturate the wood, then use a UV resistant marine varnish over the epoxy. Epoxy is not UV resistant. The epoxy sticks to the oak, the varnish sticks to the epoxy. I would fit all the wood, and drill any holes before finishing, then finish all the wood on all sides before assembling. On top of all that, I would still use a tonneau cover. My bed is (was) southern yellow pine, treated as above. I made the mistake of drilling holes for a rack after it was finished, and it rotted from the holes out. The boards that weren't drilled lasted ten years, and would have gone forever if I had touched up the varnish every other year. Wood is high maintainence; they say the cost of maintaining a wooden yacht is 10% of its value every year! I would only do another wood bed on a primarily show truck; it's disheartening the first time you gouge that beautiful wood hauling something.
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Senior User
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 244
Likes: 1
First of all, I assume we are speaking of step-side beds here. I used 5/4" treated pine decking and had the metal "strips" fabricated as my local Home Air Conditioning shop. They made the stips with a heavy guage sheet metal, about 2 inches wide and rolled the edges under for a nice fininsh. I intially applied Thompson's water seal to the boards. This was in 1997. Ever so often I'll scrub the boards and the still look fine.
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Elder User
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 693
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From: Tuttle, Oklahoma
Mar-K bed floors are a great replacement, but it is high maintenance, as with any wood exposed to the elements. I like my steel floor (68 LWB) you could get the 5/4 decking, and go that route, and get the Mar-k strips. Mar-K actually has all of the bolts for the bed available in zinc plated, stainless steel, and polished stainless. you should visit their web site.