Shop Truck Bed Wood - Cheap, Durable, Attractive

Can you have all three?

I think so.

Part of the charm of these old trucks is the wood bed. So let's build one, on the cheap.

Pine and oak bed wood kits are 250 to 400 bucks, so we're gunna cut it ourself. For durability, I chose plain old pressure treated lumber. The key here is to be VERY picky.

Make sure it is DRY.

Make sure it is STRAIGHT.

Make sure is is PRETTY.

I needed 9 boards, 8 - 1X6, and 1 - 1X8 all eight feet long.

 

The total investment in wood was $48.

I got the measurements for my 49 GMC here....

http://www.speedprint.com/deves50/bedwood.php

First, cut all the wood to length, with my ancient mitre saw....

 

Then ripped to the right width...

 

Next, I mounted my adjustable dado blade and made the first cut.



Made adjustments, and made the second cut.

 

It's really pretty simple.

The next steps are key to making the wood look older, and more expensive than just yellow pine.

First, take a propane torch and burn the light grain to make it dark.

 

Then I just used a walnut deck stain, for a nice color.



For the wear strips, I just brushed on a couple of thick coats of gloss black rustoleum.

Price of wear strips, $50

 

Next, just bolt it all together... with 70, yep Seven - Zero carriage bolts.




Bed back on the truck..




My best friend approves.

 

Done.

 

love it

 

nice. i will be stealing your tips for the bed on my '46. looks amazing and durable, great job.

 

Awesome!

 

Very nice. When can you do mine?

 

Yeah ... That's the way to build a bed floor for a working truck.

 

Looks like I just figured out how I'm doing my bed. Thanks for the ideas.

 

excellent!! thanks! I also have a 46 needing this soon

 

That looks great. Thanks for the tech.

 

a very cool pick up bed floor tech i like it

 

I like it!

 

Two thumbs up!

 

i spent so much time trying to get the right color for my bed. stain, sand, stain, sand....blah blah blah. why couldnt you have posted this about 6 months ago?

 

Killer tech!

Make sure to wear a respirator when working with pressure treated wood - it's full of evil.

 

Simple ...... nice ....... simple ...... nice ..... simple. You made it very simple to follow your lead. It also turned out very nicely.

Good job - thanks for sharing.

PACO

 

if you dont mind, im actually thinking of doing the back of my wagon in wood

 

i've used keruing / apitong (what is often in shipping container and semi trailer floors), but its not always the easiest to find and it tears up non-carbide tooling quick.

never would have given PT a thought... but it looks awesome in your pickup. damn good job!

 

I like it alot, particularly the way you scorched the grain. The only thing that worries me is the pressure treated part. Unless you used the more expensive wax impregnated lumber, it's treated with heavy salts, and would be the same as laying a bag of open salt out on the framing and bed sides. Because it's impregnated (pressure treated) with salts, it always is drawing moisture in. Doesn't rot, but it will corrode any metal it's in contact with, very rapidly, be it fasteners or the sheet metal strips and bed sides.

Pressure treated wood seems like a good idea, but you might want to rethink it, before it eats the truck up.

Brian

 

Great job! I like the burned highlights. Never thought of that. I did mine from some left over pine shelving using a five board setup to save money on bed strips. So far has held up well. That was definitely a lot of bolts. Bought mine at Home Depot in a box of 100 count.

 

Killer Tech. I am going to do the same with ash wood.


Hope my copilot and best friend approve also!

 

what are the strips from?

 

that's just tits, man!

 

I realize that pressure treated lumber can be corrosive to metal. So I went around my yard and looked at all of my projects: deck, kid's playhouse, patio, storage building, etc. They all have metal in direct contact with the wood, and it is holding up pretty well, and that's outside in the elements over the last 10-15 years.