New old bed wood
 

I know it's a '47, but since the stakebed came off my '59 when I converted it to a flareside, it bridges both sides of this group and I feel it would be of interest to some of you as it applies the same to all the trucks from the '20s to the 70s. Ok, so I have been fixing up this '47 2 ton and doing my favorite patina tricks to the surface rusted North Dakota truck. The '59's stakebed was heavy gray paint that was flaking off and peeling badly. The story starts two days ago when I got to making up the bed wood as I wait for the new bed strips I ordered from Mar-K. As I finished up the construction grade douglas fir 2x8s and 2x10s I picked out for the bed, I was dissapointed in my hasty and inexpensive choice of wood. I was intending to paint them, but no amount of paint could make them appear properly 'old'. So yesterday I went back to the drawing board and planed down the new planks to 15/16" and planed down some western larch barnboards from my stock to 5/16". I have a vacuum press in my shop so I am in the process of laminating this outer layer to my boards. I did the two outer planks which are 9 1/2" wide first and will do the other 8, which are 7 1/2" wide next. Now I'm happy with it. It just didn't feel right with the new boards. My local island hardware store only has carriage bolts in galvanized, so I burnt it off the heads with my torch so they will rust properly. I would have just used thick barn boards but didn't have anything but 1" boards around, and they were too thin for this application, which requires 1 1/4".

GB, I don't care if the truck or the bed do not belong in the 48-56 forum.... I am interested in anything you do, be it woodworking or your old work trucks!

Thanks Abe. The truck doesn't belong here, but the bed does, and I figure this thread is about the bed. It went directly from a '59 onto a '47 with no alteration whatsoever, so I figure it's exactly the same as a '48-56 stakebed. BTW, I recently bought an old portable 4 cyl welder and some PO has 'OL ABE' in large letters across the housing. It just dawned on me the other day it got it's name because it's a Lincoln Welder.

Hey, that's cool!

wood bedding
 

wondering if u checked with a saw mill in your area.. my TV watching says there are a few in WA. or if u have the land with at least one tree u could do without. cut it down and rent a portable sawmill and do it yourself.. the pre-owner of my truck did just that..

Did you cut some relief in the back side of the boards? And Re you puting on a finish
He is the local saw mill

Yes, I have a sawmill and ten acres of trees, but didn't have anything already cut and seasoned that would work. I want to take this truck to a vintage tractor and gas engine event in August. No relief cuts and I have never seen them on original wood. My'59 has original bed wood and so does my recently aquired '29 model AA. The strips do what's necessary to keep it flat enough.

Those circle sawn boards look perfect on there, nice job!
I plan to do something similar on my COE bed.....a buddy here has a sawmill and will cut my boards for me...

GB I really like your posts :D Of course lots of us have sawmills in our backyard and then there is the vacuum press :-X06 And I still don't know how you get away with having a rifle range in your backyard in liberal Washington State? :-X19

Thanks for keeping us all entertained with visions of what we would like to have. ;)

The side of Washington I live on is quite liberal. Ok, VERY liberal. Now head North of Seattle to the 'San Juan Islands', and they take liberal to a whole new level! Tree huggers, whale huggers, spotted owl huggers, pot huggers, it's pretty much endless. I don't read the local paper or go to any events in town or any of that. I am still a newcomer at 36 years here, but those of us that came here to get away from a lot of BS have seen no end of politically correct folks moving in. I will have to say I have made a decent living here creating ancient looking furniture, cabinets and doors from old wood and these creations grace a lot of beautiful waterfront homes here. I don't just do this because it is a trend to be 'green' or recycle something. I have always loved things that are worn and aged and have character. I was born in Seattle, but my folks were both Old fashioned New England Yankees. One of my Dad's yankee expressions was "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without". I am on a rant, but I wanted to follow up my bed wood saga with I'm gonna fix the driveline, fuel tank vent and a bit more painting of the bed's frame before I deck this thing over. The 8 other pieces have not been laminated yet because my employee insists he needs the bench where we set up the vacuum press in order to finish up a cabinet shop by Friday. How lame is that? Maybe I can set up the press over the weekend when he isn't here........

Love the worn and aged look. We live in a conservative area and neat old historic town from the 1770s on. It is amazing how it is changing as people move into the great little town atmosphere for what it is then want to quickly change it to more of what they left. Most people here still appreciate our old, worn, stock 55 truck - but I can see it changing to where they want you to run it as a hybrid or electric and not put that original stock 223 6 cyl high carbon footprint vehicle on the road. We have several sawmill/woodshops around, but that will not help you on the west coast. Keep it old and worn as long as you like it.

What a sweet truck, but I'll say against all rules I planked my 78 250 with
No. 1 pine 20 yrs ago, then brushed flat black, and since I dump drain oil
on it, good for it. All these years no cracks typicall with oak. just a sayin

Our fair state isn't all liberal. There just happens to be too many of them...;)

Election results by county 2012

http://media4.s-nbcnews.com/i/MSNBC/...GovernorWA.jpg



That's me waving from the southeast corner. :-wink

And GB, your woodwork is amazing. :)

Well, after a month of distractions I finally got this thing decked over. I decided to paint the bed strips with red primer and burned the zinc chromate off the carriage bolts I ordered. I coated the planks with Thomsens Water Seal from the lumber yard. Seems they have changed the formula. It's way thicker than it used to be, but it seems like it will be fine. Just one coat that soaks in will do it. Today I built a headache rack from various scrap I could find around the place. I wanted to still be able to see the cab, and also not too wide. I don't like having really wide mirrors to see around a huge headboard. I have some 1/4" diamond plate scrap that I plan to cut and fit between the channel uprights, down low, as 3 inset panels. This should protect the lower half of the cab. I will also make a couple of grab handles so us old folks can climb up into this beast a little easier. Just might get to that show in August yet!

Looks like she's ready to go to work!

Running board
 

Hey JB nice job, and nice truck. I wonder if you could snap a pic of the
running board and where it meets the fender because I have a brand new
genuine Ford my father bought back then. I know it is NOT for 1948 & up.
Its not a pickup either like a 1 1/2 ton like yours I'll give it to ya.

sam

That looks great. I was up at the family farm this weekend and went around looking for old wood. There is some really great stuff up there. I was talking about using some of the wood to make my all wood flatbed and my wife and mother in law looked at me like I was crazy. They just don't get it.

I need to get back up there and pull wood out of the hiding holes. I will need to take some pictures and get some advice from you wood experts. My nephew also showed me an approximately 4' by 8' board. It was cut using a 1929 Cat 60 driving the sawmill. My nephew wants to make a table out of it someday. It's been drying in the barn tacked up against a wall to keep it straight for a good 15 years or so.

Truck looks great, nice job!

I'm curious to see how the diamond plate looks on there...

Excellent work...I am a fan of the "keeping it alive look"

Great work on the bed and headboard GB. That truck now has just the right patina to make it worth big money.

Your comment about Thompson's Waterseal is interesting. I wonder if the thicker formula will make it last longer? :-huh I only got a few years out of it when I used it on concrete. :'(

Beautiful work on that bed!

Thanks guys! It's been a usual Monday at Mt. Pickett Woodworking. It's about 8 pm and I still have my son and his buddy resawing old fence boards for yuppie siding. Of course they don't show up 'til noon :-huh. They're using an 18" bandsaw that came from a WW 2 shipyard, but with ba modern motor. (Kinda like a lot of our trucks). I snuck over to a buddy's place for some diamond plate and now might do it in one long piece. I got some pics that I can post later tonight.

Hey Gary,
You post the best pics - love your fleet of old trucks. I like being able to see the saw marks in the wood in that close up pic. I think you also posted the best video I've ever seen on here! It was an old Powerwagon (?)lumbering up a steep hill - fantastic.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

That was the '51 6x6 powerwagon with a hemi I bought last August and sold three days later. I could only afford to drive it for 3 days! For the last 27 years I Have attended the Puget Sound Antique Tractor and Machinery Association's show at Lynden, Wa. I took the dodge there and sold it for a 2500.00 profit, and I kept the 12,000 lb warn winch that was on the rear. Once I reached the island on my return I stopped at a guy's place who was selling a 1980 scout with a factory nissan 6 cyl turbo diesel. I remember when he bought new, and have coveted it since. It now has 74,000 miles. He had been asking 3500.00, but he took the 2500.00 I had in my pocket. One of my better transactions..... But now, as usual I'm hijacking my own thread. OK, I have some pics of the original subject.