Hello I am trying to bring my old beast back to life.
It is the 1980 F100 with the stepside bed and wood.
That is the big question.
The wood is rotten and I am wanting to know what I should do to change this.
What would be a good wood? Should I take the bed off to do this? What would I treat the wood with. Finish. I need some durability. I will be using this for work, but I like the wood. As I am sure some of you guys do too. It makes a classic look. So given the opportunity to take this job on yourselves what would you do?

Thanks a bunch guys,
Justin

 

i would get a oak wood kit & seal it
if everything is in decent shape id leave the bed on & do it

 

I like oak. You did say kit. Is there a company that makes one?
Also what would be a good sealer that could take a beating in a truck. Would I just use what I sould use on decks that I build?
Cause I would like it to stand up to stuff like oil and gas. Not sure if your standard deck seal will do it.

 

well i had a friend do a 54 ford pickup & it was a show truck
thats been a few years back
not sure where he order it from but i know it wasnt cheap
also seen it on the tv show Trucks i thought it was a kit too
they put one in their Copperhead truck

 

I have a 77 F100 flareside with the wood bed floor. I ordered the oak floor kit from Bruce Horkey's wood and parts in Minnesota. Their address is RR 4, Box 188, Windom, MN 56101. E-mail is woodandparts@yahoo.com. I paid about 500 for everything I needed(pre-cut oak boards, 6 stainless steel strips to hold the boards in place, and stainless steel bolts. That was about 5 years ago, so the prices may have gone up a little. I applyed a varnish and sealer to the boards to give them a finished look. The varnish and sealer has held up well, but I haven't hauled anything in the truck bed since replacing the floor. I did not remove the bed to replace the floor, everything was accessable from underneath, and my truck doesn't have any rust, so that wasn't an issue. Being that yours is an Arizona truck, rust shouldn't be an issue for you either, so you should have no problems replacing the floor without removing the bed. I would guess that a really stong wood sealer would hold up to just about anything you would want to haul in the bed of your truck, so I'd recommend that to protect the new floor. Good luck on the restoration. These old flaresides are very cool trucks! (I have a 77 and a 92 flareside)

 

Check out the www.mar-k.com website, they have all kinds of kits and parts for stepside trucks.

 

THanks for the info guys. For the price, I think I will just make my own kit. I have tons of tools, and I have spent many countless hours working with wood doing all sorts of things. The site you gave is awesome. Had good info on finishing products and their testing as well. Thank you. I will post some pictures in the future letting you guys know how everything is going. Before and after. This is going to be a bunch of fun.

 

When I bought my truck it came with a nicely fitted heavy rubber mat. If your truck sits outside a lot, you might want to invest in one of these mats to protect you nice new wooden bed. It's the sun that does the most harm. Just pull it out when you go where they have valet parking or if you are visiting your Seantor.

p.s. my truck is a beater. The floor of the bed under that mat is the nicest looking part of the truck.

 

ive got an 81 f-100 with the wood stepside as well...the rest of the truck looks great, but the inside of the box looks pretty bad. all the boards are rotted out, most of the strips have rust holes in them, and the inside of the beds paint is pretty scratched. I want to replace all the metal strips and wood, and maybe paint the inside of the box, as well as fix the piece of metal attached to the box that bolts onto the wood panels all around...it is mostly rusted out. I tried last summer to get the strips out, but it seems somones tried before, and stripped most of the bolts. What would your recommendation for this be? im in highschool, and if got an autobody class next semester where i'll be working on this. what kind of wood would work good? my grandpa owns a sawmill and could prbly cut me up some boards...but im afraid certain types of wood might buckle.

 

Ha, see my whole truck is ugly. Except for the eingine, and tranny. Everything elses is getting a serious overhaul/ Just a good thing there is very little rust.

 

If your grandpa owns a sawmill, he's probably the best one to ask. But most guys use oak. White oak, not red oak. It's really tough and takes a nice finish. See what grandpa says first though.

 

A real wood floor in the bed of a truck is just plain beautiful. However, if yours is going to be a daily driver work truck, you might want to consider the new plastic composite planks sold at the big box hardware stores as deck planks. The plastic decking is tough, and is impervious to the weather and rot. It can be milled with regular wood working tools and it doesn’t need to be varnished or painted. I think it’s a viable alternative to real wood and I’m going to use it in my ’53 pickup.

If you do decide to use real wood, be sure to finish it with spar varnish. Spar varnish is formulated with additives that resist the destructive ultraviolet part of sunlight.

 

I've used oak in a 59 chevy I did in the past. Very nice. If I were to do it again though, I'd choose a wood that naturally is coordinated with my paint color (or opposite if you're into contrasts). Use spar varnish to get it gleaming and get a uv inhibitor additive if it doesn't have one.

 

Check my gallery.
I did my own with white oak boards that I got at a commercial lumber yard. The edges are dato cut to recess the bed strips. Boards are coated with 5 coats of Spar Urethane.
The bed strips are Stainless Steel WOW Strips from pros-pick.com

 

I am new here, and I am not sure how to find your Gallery easy, without searching through a bunch. Could you let me in on the secret, or give me link? I would love to see how it turned out. I have no problem getting the lumber, and I think I will just use my old strips to keep it cheap. They are not in bad shape just badly painted by the last moron that owned him. I have access to a good sandblaster, and all the wood I want, with tools.