What I began with… About eighteen years ago my 1949 Chevrolet half ton was a dd/only vehicle and I hauled cordwood, helped people move, a regular truck. Recently I removed the truck box and found additional aging, definitely time for a redo. I had in mind to use Ipe (Brazilian hardwood, pronounced ‘epay’), and as fate would have it a local gent was selling Ipe that was used on a deck. He gave me an excellent deal as I gave him $70 for approximately 75-80 bd/ft. Perhaps the good deal because I arrived in my truck? Off to a great friend’s to mill the boards to cut to length and dadoed to provide for the metal skids strips that stand slightly proud of the deck surface. Close up Finished boards traveling home. Mock up including bed strips. Sectioning repair of bed strips rather than buying new. Offset washer Forstner bit cut. Tung oil finish, three coats. Building back better. There’s joy in the work and the results. I ran out of painting weather in December in preparation for the bed, will finish up this year.
There is a five gallon bucket stain up there and nail holes from the wood's previous life as an old deck but it has always been a functional truck and I'm not a show guy. A good friend told me that Ipe, untreated, uncared for is good to go for 40 years.
Nice job, beautiful wood and re-purposed. You had a really good friend who would let you run old wood with possibly unseen nails through his wood blades.
You got a really good deal on the wood since as of a year ago it was selling for $3.50-5.00 a board foot. Probably a lot more now.
Looks great! Love the truck. I learned to drive on a '49 Chevy 3100 my Dad purchased used in 1952 from the dealership he worked for part time back in the day. The truck was used by the dealership to chase parts etc. and story goes that sometime early in its life there was a problem in the differential that resulted in the dealership replacing the broken gear but did not replace a matched ring and pinion set. Truck ran well and really didn't make much noise, only upon decelerating. On his way home, we could hear dad approaching. I miss those days!
Not a chance of a nail. Are you familiar with this wood? This wood was screwed to the deck, possibly pre drilled. ALL nails MUST be pre drilled, NO WAY to hammer a nail without drilling!
Used African walnut in my last house , had to drill all nail holes and wore out 3 ,10 inch saw blades . Some of that wood sure is hard . They say it is 7 time harder than Oak . I have Black walnut dried out for the box of my 34 chev pu. Nice looking wood and Job on your 46
Wood looks nice, and a good compliment for the truck. My 52 GMC has plywood bed floor, but with the metal strips on top of the plywood. You can sort of see the plywood in the attached pic. Again, its a working truck that I am not afraid to load up with stuff.
Ok,substitute scre for nail. Still the risk hitting metal in old boards. Board gets squeaky, somebody drills a hole and set in a nail, corrodes and breaks off at some point and hides till a carbide tipped saw blade discovers it.
Yeah...that Ipe is something-else!! Hard as metal (nearly!) Definitely pre-drill everything on Ipe!! Looks great! 6sally6
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