I am restoring my 69 4x4 flareside long box, and I need to replace the bed.

Does anyone have any experience with different woods, or suppliers. The truck won't be doing any heavy duty any more (it has done it's share), but the truck will be driven so I'm interested in what will hold up the best under Alberta weather (generally dry but we get winter).

 

Check my gallery , I used synthetic wood 8 footers cut down , will not rot or fade and added weight to the back for traction , Home Depot , it is deckwood so i figured that should be tough . $150 .

 

Ken has a good idea with the synwood. If you are set on hardwood, then I suggest white oak or ash. They do well with weather. Ash is probably a little less expensive, fwiw. And, they were the preferred woods to use in wood beds because of their toughness and weahter qualities. I plan on using birch, but I have a toneau and rubber mat so it won't see any real work, but it'll look good in our local shows. Plus, I'm doing my dash and steering wheel in birch, so I'll have the same wood throughout.

 

Dennis Carpenter offers a pre cut and rabbited oak bed kit with attaching hardware.

The metal slates don't come with the kit, but he sells those too.

The wood is unfinished so it needs some kind of protection.

The last one I did for a friend, I sealed, then stained the wood, put 3 coats of varnish on both sides, then sprayed on 5 coats of varathane.

As original, the wood was painted body color.

 

KEN - I was thinking about using synthetic wood, but I'm under pressure from friends to stay with real wood. From your gallery I gather that you did not use the metal strips. I intend to and I don't know if the synthetic wood will allow you to router out the groove.

The guy who is doing the restoration showed my a bed he did for another project that had (I think) 15 coats of clear and looked like it was encased in one of those acrylic cubes.

NUMBERDUMMY - I am working on a substantial part order with Dennis Carpenter, but they don't have the long box kit, so I'll be calling around.