Technical Bed finish - used motor oil?

Just bought a pine 9 board wood bed kit for my '48 Chevy truck and was thinking about using some used motor oil for stain/finish. Not a restoration by any means - gonna haul stuff in it. Figured I'd save some time and $ as well as preserving the wood. Opinions - good/bad idea?
Who's done it before? Would you do it again?

Don

 

Never did it on a truck bed but don't see why you can't. we apply drain oil all the time to our construction trailer beds when we replace the wood on them.

 

sounds like a bad idea to me .would make for a slippery surface in the wet or damp.if you ever sit on it,it would destroy your jeans and your jeans will destroy your seat.id go for a wood stain like BONDEX.1 coat will dry in matt.build up coats until you get the sheen you want.apply the stain using a cloth wear rubber gloves.dont forget to treat the sides and underneath of the boards

 

Knew a guy who regularly put diesel on his truck bed. I know the bed lasted twenty years. Then he sold it.

 

i would think it would be messy and possibly sweat some out when its hot out and then you have oil on everything, also slick as snot and a rainbow film everywhere probably when its wet.

 

Traditional in the big truck industry. Today environmentalists frown on it. Not quite as messy as above have said. Just don't sit on it after a fresh application.

 

News flash, if you go down to your local building supply they actually make products specifically for finishing wood

 

No, it will stink and never really dry. Dust and dirt will stick to it and it will stain everything that comes in contact with it.Spend a few bucks and buy a couple of quarts of stain colored to your liking and seal it with exterior sealer. Done deal.
Oil may be good for a flatbed heavy equipment trailer, but not a classic truck.

 

Not only that but it will mildew,use a wood preservative and you will be happier in the long run. HRP

 

When I was a kid, my dad built a stake side trailer and gave me the task of brushing on a couple coats of linseed oil. For something as small as a pick up bed, it would be easy enough to do that periodically as needed.

 

50/50 linseed oil/turpentine is an old recipe for preservative for wood fences. I have a wooden gate in my yard we had custom made, I sealed it with this, and about once a year I reapply a coat. That gate will outlive me.

 

Ha. For fence work, we will routinely chunk a quart of used oil into buckets of stain. Years of it. Cresote oil also used as stain to predate this ... ^^^ . Now of course, at a sizable cost difference is a product known as ..... ready ( ??? ) ..... "timber oil".

Sooooooo' what do wood stains have in them ?? WAIT FOR IT. .....

OIL !!!

...... you're welcome !

 

Had a buddy throw a used torque converter in mine upside down, some of it is stained with atf. My chainsaw leaks bar oil, some of it is stained with that, my jug of diesel tips over occasionally, some of it is stained with that. It's a collage of my activities...

 

Tung oil works pretty well on new wood. Even teak oil is good. I wouldn't use anything else.

 

I painted maple syrup in the bed of mine. The color matches my interior and my dogs absolutely love to ride back there.

 

I tried Oil of Olay once, it looked years younger.
I have used teak oil with good results.

 

the Bull Haulers use it all the time but they also have the trailers washed like weekly, if you are wanting a natural type finish the turpentine and linseed oil would be best

 

Spar varnish the stuff for boats.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

A water repellent wood preservative would work well. Reapply as often as you like.

 

Drain oil is a bad idea, it may get motor oiled eventually but not a good idea. Go spend you hard earned cash on some linseed oil. Or buy a can of English or Swedish oil finish. No reason to make it crappy from the start it will get that way from use if you actually use it.

Do not completely seal the wood or it will dry rot, wood has to breath.

 

Hello,
Great ideas from above posts...Back in the 60's, our friend had a great paying job working in the oil fields in Signal Hill, the big oil field hill surrounded 360 degrees by Long Beach. We were all impressed that he made so much money, had a cool apartment with a view of the Long Beach Harbor/Coastline and was the envy of everyone. He drove an old truck with oil stains on the bed. He could never get those out.

But the worst thing about making all of that money was the constant oil stains everywhere. The worst part was that he had to have clean Levis, T-shirts, and underwear daily after work. His clothes were stacked up near the door because of the oil that soaks everywhere. Part of his weekly income was to replace his oil soaked clothes...So oil is not your friend...

Jnaki
Did he ride in my 58 Impala? Yes, but he had to have completely clean, new clothes to do so. As a back up, I also had Sure Fit, clear plastic seat covers, too. No stains of any kind in my car!

 

Crude oil is much messier and stinkier and stickier than motor oil. Think of the difference between engine oil and 90w gear lube only worse.

 

I read in a 1970's magazine article about building your "back to the land" cabin and applying motor oil inside as a wood treatment. The article said the oil soaks in and the smell dissipates in a while...

 

The wood stain I'm using has to be applied once a year or else it flakes off from sitting in the sun/rain.
It's only a 1/2 hour job to do so it's not really a big deal.
Seems to me you would have a continuous film of oil being washed off into the catch basin or ditch, I wouldn't do it. Save the used oil for the weeds around the fence.

 

I looked over a 55 1st series Chevy pickup that a farmer had where he dumped the drain oil in the bed after each oil change and mopped it around. Wood, bed side bottoms, and all metal below were cherry but he lived on a rock road so everything underneath was caked up to several times it's size or completely buried.

 

I use Tung Oil for guitar necks! Dries hard and seals the wood up, protecting it from sweat, but dries to a smooth finish that feels almost like there is nothing on it at all, like freshly sanded wood. Much better than a thick poly finish that feels sticky. But we're digressing here, sorry. Back to the motor oil on truck bed discussion!

 

Most ol finishes need to be refreshed from time to time. I used boiled linseed oil on the bed in the pusher and refreshed it once a year whether I needed to or not, worked well for a hauler although linseed oil is poison so in retrospect it may have been hard on the environment.

 

In California used motor oil causes cancer. I don't know about Texas.

 

I used the used motor oil method on the wooden gates at my house, and I have little advice.
#1 it will take a few days for the wood to fully absorb the oil and it will smell bad during that time. I recommend that you park it in the sun and allow it to bake after application.
#2 until the wood has fully absorbed the oil it will get dusty pretty easily.
#3 make sure you're not using motor oil that was recently drained out of a diesel unless you are looking for a really dark stain. (ask me how I know)
#4 if you apply too much the engine degreaser option at your local coin op car wash should help remove the excess.

Otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to use crankcase oil to preserve pine in a pickup bed. I also use it to heat my garage in the winter.

 

Hemorrhoids at the very least any place else.