Anyone here ever made their own wood bows for your trucks interior?

I'm going to do a custom interior, not just a headliner, but I need to put some wood bows in place. Is there a better way to get the curves in the bow other than using a wider piece of wood and cutting the curve in?

All thoughts and ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I don't know what the bows in your vehicle look like, but you can probably just rip some slats of wood and steam bend them. (I would use something like cherry wood, fine even grain but not overly hard.) Cut a form from any old two by lumber with the curve you need. Use a pressure cooker to generate the steam, replace the weight on the lid with a piece of tubing. For your steam chamber just use a length of pipe large enough to hold your slats of wood. (Do them one at a time. Takes longer but you only need one form and you probably wouldn't have enough clamps to do them all at once.) The pipe needs to be capped or plugged to keep the steam inside with the slat. Rig up some way of fitting the tube from the pressure cooker to feed steam into the pipe. The other end of the pipe will have to have a tiny hole to keep it from building up pressure. The moisture softens the wood but it is the HEAT that allows you to bend it and not have it spring back straight when you remove the clamps.

It's a good idea to do this outside, using a propane camp stove to heat the pressure cooker. The pipe (er, steam chamber,) should be higher than the pressure cooker.

The pipe caps (or plugs,) don't have to be tight and you should have some means of removing one of them when it is hot as hell, when it is time to remove your slat and clamp it into the form. Be sure you have enough clamps before you start. If you don't have plenty, then you will have to make another piece that fits into your form that you can use to press your soft steamy slat into the form with fewer clamps. (If you have a band saw, or a jig saw, this might just be the the other part of the two by lumber that you cut your form out of.)

When you put your slats into the pipe, set them on some small blocks at intervals so the steam can get to all surfaces. Once your pressure cooker gets hot enough that it is really putting out steam it only takes a few minutes unless the pipe is oversized. But as a rough gauge, when the pipe is too hot to touch with your bare hand, turn off the burner and work quickly to clamp the slat into the form. Take it out when it is cool. It may still be damp but that's ok, just don't let it get distorted before it is dry.

Be sure to keep an eye on the water in the pressure cooker. If you burn it up you will be in trouble with somebody!

It's a fun project.
(Do not try to steam bend maple or douglas fir.)

 

I always heard to steam bend wood you should not use kiln dryed wood. The reason was you could not put enough moisture back into the wood to bend it and it would break as it was bent.
What you might try is cutting thin strips about 1/8" thick and glue them to a form that has the curves that you want. Use as many strips as required to make the bows alittle over size and sand them down also be sure the form has wax paper so the strips don't glue stick to it. Hope this helps!!
John

 

Nothing wrong with making laminated bows. Just depends on your equipment and experience and inclinations. Carlene does not really specify the size bows required. We had to make bows for an 08 Locomobile and they were huge. We ordered oak 2x4's and sent them to an outfit in L.A. that steam bent them for us to our specs. They bent the curves but we had to pare away nearly half the wood to match the origianals and it was still a great deal of work.

Carlene, maybe you can give us some detail about your project......... ?

 

Wow guys, thanks. I wasn't expecting any, let alone 2 replys this quick.

First off, Welcome to FTE Bdox.

What I'm going to do is a seamless interior in our 1941 Truck, forming the headliner and back as one to the contour of the truck. Bows in the back won't be a problem because I can go up/down to where the existing metal bows are. There's one at the top and one at the bottom of the rear window. I need to add 2 to the roof for both design and support. The roof is only 57" wide but curves quite a bit getting to the doors where they will hook up to.

I'll be using oak for the bows and it sounds like the build-up method will be the easiest & cheapest for me. (Don't have a pressure cooker).

Thanks again guys. I really appreciate the help.

 

I have been a cabinet and furniture maker for 20 years,preceeded by 10 years in wooden boat construction.I am currently restoring a 40 1 1/2 ton.All the replies are very good in my opinion.I vote for the laminating.I have made lots of curved deck beams,frames etc using both methods.Here is what I have learned...Lots of thin laminations are better than a few thick ones.I would say 1/8 thick.This way you have less 'spring back.The are also strong.The new polyurethane glues are great.(gorrilla glue,pro-bond etc)I would ct a cardboard template,saw out a form just like what has been said.My trck came without a headliner.Would there have been wood bows up there originally?Hauled 3000 # of lumber up my rough mountain road yesterday and the roof 0ilcans at each bump...Gary

 

I still don't have a good idea of the size of your bows Carlene. Are they tiny things?

If they are very small, and you are going to laminate, you might do the following just because it is easier than making a form. Simply draw the profile of your bows on a piece of wood, three quarter thick or greater. Then drill holes, maybe half inch diameter all around the drawing, inside and out. Cut lengths of dowel and drive them in the holes, (nice snug fit,) and bend your thin layers of wood to lay between the dowels. Then you can use a bunch of those spring clips to clamp up the assembly. (The ones that look sort of like oversized metal clothespins.)

As GB and J Wright say, eighth inch thick is usually good, but oak is tough stuff. In any case, the tighter the radius of the curves, the thinner the strips need to be. If you use white oak, it is extremely rigid and red oak less so. Point being, you need to experiment with the thickness to make sure you can make the curves without cracking the wood.

Also per GB's idea of using polyurethane glue...... If you decide to use that, your bows may outlast the vehicle, but it is pretty messy. Be sure to use a parting agent on your form, (whatever form it takes,) like spray wax, Pam, or just wrap it with Saran wrap. If you don't you will have to saw the form off your new bows. Since they are not going to be exposed to the elements, a good carpenter's glue would probably be fine. It's a water clean-up, at least until the glue has dried but you would still be well advised to spray your form with something that the glue can't stick to.

 

GB, regarding your "oil-canning" problem you might just try a strip of quarter inch plywood about two to three inch wide. Epoxy it to your roof metal, going side to side.
Make some supports to reach from the truck seat, somewhat compressed, to the plywood stiffener to hold it in place while the glue sets. If the roof has a coating on it you might use Sikaflex instead of epoxy. If that doesn't fix it, just install additional strips to each side of the first one.

Are you thinking of adding a headliner at some point?

 

Bdox, For now this truck is like a giant hillbilly ratrod or something....I suppose I might do a headliner,but I dont mind it a bit on the rough side.It will never be stock, but sure pulls well with the 302 and T-18....Also as to glue,I admit I use yellow carpenter glue whenever I can in my work,poly is messy but has great gap-filling properties that might come in handy here.love the dowel bending jig idea also. GB

 

Sorry Bdox, I must have been having a blonde moment. They will all be 1" wide and the thickness I need is two 1" and one 1 1/2". I like your idea about using the dowels, but I think the layering and sanding will still be easier for me since all three bows will be different. The roofs of these cabs are narrower at the front so the length changes a bit as it gets to the back. Oh, and I planned on using red oak unless you guys have a better idea.

GB, your 1940 1 1/2 is the same cab as our 1941 so no, there were no wood bows. The headliner was just a flat piece of waterboard going across the top and went down the back just below the rear window with two corner pieces that angled to the floor.

As for your oil canning problem, do a search for oil canning in the Paint & Body forum. There's some real good posts there about how to heat shrink the areas to do away with this problem. Luckily our cab didn't have any oil canning issues, but did have some major dents on the back of the roof that looked perfect for toting 2x4. All I had to do was beat them out as best as I could and fill.

 

Hey Guys -

Sorry I haven't been around this forum much lately, but did want to let you know that I haven't had a chance to make my bows or do anything else on the 41.

I have been working with wood though. We moved and now Steve & I are building an almost 1500sq ft covered porch on the new place so thats where all my time has been going. Hopefully when its done I can get back to the 41.

I'll be sure to let you know when I start the 41 again and if they turn out, I'll post picts of the bows.

Later.

 

Good to hear that you are still with us!!

When you get to the wood bow project maybe you could post some pics of the process you use.

 

And Carlene, the dowel jig idea IS for the laminating process. Yes on the red oak, it glues just fine and will bend ok too. The thinner the strips the easier the job will be.
It's fun to do too.

 

Thanks Bdox - at the moment, this is one of my most favorite threads. Great info.

And, I will definately post photos and let you guys know how things work out, afterall, this bow is the heart of my interior work.

 

Carlene:
If you use Gorilla glue or any type like that you do NOT want to get any on you, because the only way to get it off is to let it wear off, I've not found anything to wash it off. I always get some on me no matter what and it takes a week or so to wear off....
good luck!!!
John