I have had a few old military trucks , clear white oak , seems to be the standard . Impe ( not sure of the spelling ) is by far the best you can get and it has super tight grain . Looks great when finished correctly . My finish is always boiled linseed oil . You scratch it you re oil the spot and keep on haul azz !
http://www.advantagelumber.com/disc...03gWkgfHdDDfItIwvRArwqVOnoijz9SBoCWRAQAvD_BwE Take a look at this stuff , as I said my spelling was a bit off in previous post
On my grandson's -59 Elky we used Tigerwood with catalyzed urethane clear coat. On my '53 Chevy I used Ipe (Ironwood) with a silica filled resin sealer. Both are tropical hardwoods used for decking so are available, relatively cheap, and extremely durable. The Ipe with a sealer looks a lot like American Walnut. Plus it has the same fire rating as concrete, so dense it sinks in water and is loaded with a yellow antibacterial, anti-weathering resin. Both woods are very hard and durable.
Southern Yellow Pine,has tight grain looks good with lite stain or just sealed.If maintained will last a long time,
While you're making up your mind, here's some advice from someone who's built boats. Air dried Northern white oak is relatively inexpensive and has a very tight grain that will last practically forever. If looks are a concern, buy quarter sawn planks for the rays exposed in the faces. Flat sawn planks will tend to curl on the edges while quarter sawn will not. Using a gel stain will give you a streak free color and a polyurethane varnish with an ultraviolet inhibitor will help keep your wood from changing color. Red oak has an open grain and is not normally used where water can get to it. Any of the exotics from S. America or Africa are photo-sensitive and will turn darker. The picture is of several pieces of one of my favorites call Padauk. If you look at the ends of the boards where some have stuck out of the stack more than others and at the light stripes going across the wide boards, you can see what I mean. The stripes are where I used sticker boards to allow air between the Padauk. The darker areas are the result of ultraviolet exposure and none of these boards were outside. I have used Marine Spar varnish with an ultraviolet inhibitor on pieces made from this wood and the wood will immediately turn from the natural reddish orange to a beautiful deep red. After exposure to the sun, the boards will turn from red to a deep brown. Ipe' is a good wood to use if you don't mind the dark color. It is used on decks and requires little care other than cleaning. Teak is another good wood but is very expensive. You can seal it if you wish but if not, leave it natural and it will turn a beautiful silver gray. What ever you decide, use stainless fasteners. Carbon steel discolors wood.
I had a big tree destroy a barn on my place and I salvaged the wood to use in the bed of my 55 F100. It's got some knots and rusty nail holes which my wife calls character The wood is all white oak and had been on the barn for probably 50 years. My wife did a contrasting stain on the divider strips and used stainless bolts to attach them. .
I like the dark wood with your color paint. I used cedar. Cheap, available, weathers well. Tung oil. Not that strong but this truck will haul nothing but ass!
My friend worked at CF Transportation in the wood shop building trailers. I got some teak wood that had a reddish color for my truck bed. I'll check to see if I have any pic's. Not sure?
Your truck is so gorgeous. It could have most any type of bed and I'd look past it! You're a lucky guy! - EM
Hello, Having worked with wood over the years, one of the hardest wood is oak. Stained to match whatever you have is not a problem. Newly cut oak soaks up the stain well. Everything from a waterproof stain only to a hard shell finish from epoxy or polyurethane coatings is suggested. We had good and bad results from most of the typical coatings on various woods. Here is the choice you have from this point. 1. Do you want a shiny show car finish? Then use some form of epoxy or polyurethane coatings. 2. Or… oil if you are going to use it daily for hauling stuff in the back. (Only oil) The metal strips protect is a little if the object is flat, but what object is perfectly flat? 3. But the wood is exposed to the elements daily, so what about a waterproof decking coat of protection? I just saw a cool Chevy pick up truck at a local big box home improvement store a few days ago. It had a nice wood insert in the back. It looked like dark stained oak. The bed also looked like it is a working truck and hauls a lot of stuff in the back. The black metal strips looked outstanding ! Jnaki The oak lined bed seems to be holding up quite well. I would have been pleased with the finish and detailing of this pick up bed. It looked to be a daily driver and had an affiliation with a local car club. It did have an “ACES” club plaque on the bumper.
May want to try a dark green stain on some sample and see if you can get something to complement the paint color.http://www.timberprocoatings.com/Canada/SemiSolidStains.html
For me I like seeing lighter toned wood with a dark colored truck and a darker toned wood with a light colored truck. My truck being a flareside with a wood bed (not hamb safe year wise) its a dark midnight metallic blue with argent silver two tone and I am looking at White Oak or Red Oak. If I go exotic I am leaning towards Tigerwood or South Africa Paduak. In any case this is an excellent site they go way back selling wood bed kits pre cut to your vehicle. http://bedwoodandparts.com/
The Jalopy Journal
