Working on my bed

Discussion in '1955-1959' started by smfulle, Jul 16, 2014.

  1. smfulle

    smfulle Member

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2008
    Messages:
    84
    Location:
    Ogden, Utah
    i haven't been on here much in the last couple of years because I have been spending my project time on my 48 Willys CJ2A.

    [VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zMMq4fESks[/VIDEO]

    I still have my 59 and it's still my daily driver. Since I've had it the bed has been a mess. Original wood was all rotted out. It had a couple of layers of plywood on top of the original rotted wood, then the previous owner knew someone that did diamond plate so he put a bunch of diamond plate scrap pieces on the plywood when it rotted all hodge podge. Just screwed down with wood screws. When I got it I threw another sheet of plywood over the top of all that. An ugly mess, but it worked, I still used the truck to haul stuff, but I've been thinking about fixing it for 5 years.

    Finally this summer I ordered a kit from Mar-K and I'm in the middle of getting it painted and installed.

    i forgot to take any before shots, but here are some pics of when I was just getting everything torn down.

    Here you can see a scrap of the original wood.
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    Here's what the metal strips looked like when I got them torn out.
    [​IMG]

    Had my wife and kids help lift the bed off to reveal the rusty frame.
    [​IMG]

    I cleaned up the frame with a wire brush on my angle grinder, then painted it with POR 15.
    [​IMG]

    The wood kit that I bought from MAR K is the yellow pine. I still use this truck as a truck and didn't want any exotic wood that I would cry over if it got dented. I also wanted some type of finish that would look good, but also be easy to touch up. I decided to go with tung oil. I bought a couple of quarts of the Pure Tung Oil from the Real Milk Paint Co. I got the DARK version of the tung oil rather than the natural color.

    Yesterday I rubbed many coats of tung oil onto the wood. I cut it 50/50 with mineral spirits and poured it on, then rubbed it in, leaving the wood wet. I would wait a 15 - 45 minutes until it looked like the wood was drying out and then rub some more on. I probably did this 5 times. I forgot to say that before I started on the flats of the boards, I stood them on end in a bucket of tung oil for several hours so the oil could wick up the end fibers.

    At the end of the day yesterday I waited about an hour after the last application, then wiped the boards dry to set over night.

    Today I went out and put two more applications of the tung oil on, then after an hour, wiped the boards dry again. Here is how that look right now.
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    Here's a close up, but the color is a little off in the phone photo. The real color is more like the previous photo.
    [​IMG]

    I really like how the boards turned out. i hope that the tung oil finish will hold up. I have no experience with it, or any type of wood finish. I just didn't want any type of varnish or clear coat that would peal. I'm waiting for a couple of cross sills then I will put it all back together and get some finish product photos up.
     
  2. smfulle

    smfulle Member

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2008
    Messages:
    84
    Location:
    Ogden, Utah
    bed done

    Got the thing put together today. I'm really happy with how it turned out.
    My wife likes it too!

    [​IMG]
     
  3. steve

    steve Member

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2000
    Messages:
    321
    Location:
    Virginia
    That works

    Look good, water repellent too.
     
  4. vwnate1

    vwnate1 Member

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2000
    Messages:
    11,643
    Location:
    AMERICA !
    Bed Wood

    Great job there ! .

    You'll be well pleased with it for decades , just remember anytime it begins to look dry just thin out some more Tong Oil and brush it on......
     

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