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Okay, I am starting a thread on the bed floor portion of my build. I am replacing the steel bed floor with wood similar to a flareside.
My truck started as something most of you would have sent to the scrapper. The truck was more rust than metal lol. I chose to to take it on because I was planning so many mods that I didn't want to kill a good body that someone would love. Just thought i would get the "why didn't you buy a better bed" answered.
This will be a slower thread as I am not retired and life has a funny way of killing any plans I make to get stuff done on the truck lol.
I started by removing the bed and completely seperating the rotten bed sides from the inner bed sides. Once that was done i was able to to see just how horrible the metal really was. I was only able to salvage the right side outer side, 2 floor supports and the front panel.
I sourced a couple better inner bedsides but they were far from good. Once I blew them apart I began making new lower pieces that attached to the rear cross sill.
Once I cleaned up and repaired the reclaimed inners I went to work drilling 128 spot welds to get rid of the old steel floor and supports. After a weekend of cleaning up the old pinch weld and hammer/dolly work I was ready to start making a new rear cross sill. I know they make repops but it would not work for a wood floor. I used .125 wall 2x6 tubing for this.
Once I had it cut a shade long I started mocking up the bed and getting it fit using the front cross sill and middle cross sill to locate everything on the frame. I took measurements from a solid bed at various points and set all my widths to that. Once satisfied I tacked it all together and pulled it back off the frame to the saw horses for better mobility around it to weld.
Next I started working the one original bedside. I used patch panels from amd and salvaged panels. Worked till I was happy, not doing metal finish as this is a dd and not a trailer queen. I had to completely fab all the supports that stiffen the back of the bed and tailgate supports.
Now that I had a structurally sound bed I set it back on the frame and began fab work on the new channels that would capture the bed wood at the inner bedside. Nothing readily available would work and look factory so I once again made them (16' of weld) and spent a complete Saturday straightening them from all the weld draw. I drilled 100 1/4" holes and rosette welded the c channel to the bedsides. Then it was on to making hidden mounts to bolt the bed to the frame.
To do this I used 1 1/4" 3/16 wall square tube and 3/16 thick angle iron. I used stock bed bolt holes in the frame to locate my cross braces and tabs. To get the mounting sills flush with the wood c channel I relief cut/ground the thickness of the lower channel pieces and welded together.
I laid out how I wanted my wood and did some math. I came up with a 6.5" wide plank with a 1/2 gap in between each board. From there I mocked up 2 bed strips for hole locations and started welding in 1" angle iron mount bars and landing bars. Then I cut mock up boards to test fit as patterns. I went with cheap whitewood for the trial. I would hate to ruin all my black walnut cause I sucked at math lol. Cleaned up some rust and will por 15 and seam sealer this weekend.
Dang. That is a lot of work. Very impressive. I'm in the process of putting my flareside back together w/ the wood bed. The original designs had hard wood blocks between the cross members and the frame. I'm assuming for some ability to flex. I'd be a bit worried about stress cracks if you attach directly to the frame. I'm assuming your cross members are lined up w/ the holes in the strips between the boards? You'll want at least a few of them lined up for more security.
I am final mounting with 1/4" rubber isolators. When I structured it all I made sure to beef it up, it actually has more tie-ins to the bed sides than it originally did. As for the bed strips every bolt goes through steel.
Got off work early (10 hour day) so I put the first coat of por 15 on just the bed structure. Hopefully the rain holds off this weekend so I can strip the paint of the inner bed area and get a coat of sealer on it and seam sealer it all. I wanted to work the por 15 into the seams before I seam sealed it.
Man you are making great headway with that idea and I bet it is going to look one off and awesome for sure. Hope you bring it to the Ozark Mountain Run in Aug looking fwd to seeing it.
Got the second coat of por 15 on tonight. Covered slightly more and sloppy, than I needed and will be sanding some back off when I strip the inner bed down to bare metal. I will seam sealer it all in the morning then move on to putting the aces tbi on the 460. Never used the brand but they say all the right things about the materials the use to make them so I will give them a try. I will do a small write up on that and post periodic updates on driveability.
Last edited by nluttrell; Apr 24, 2026 at 09:57 PM.
Thanks guys! I hadn't really thought about putting anything between the boards under the bed, figured you needed that gap open for water to drain.
Rich,
With omr moved to August I think I will be there with it this year. I plan on doing a couple big mods to the cab that I won't start before then so I am going to do a custom mix rustoleum blue paint job just to put some shine on it. Next year i will strip it all off and put the firemist cobalt blue and brilliant silver on.
No need to paint it JUST for the show, they/we accept all sorts of Ford trucks, Bronco's, panel trucks...projects, rat rod's, middle of the restro project, patina ride's.
Yeah, the paint isn't so much for the show as it is for me. If I am going to have in public I want it to at least have decent paint even if it isn't final. Who knows, I might like it and keep it lol. This will be a dd and not a trailer queen.
