...for my '54. It's really a 55.1, but that doesn't rhyme! Seriously, anybody have a used set of wood and bed strips laying around that is in decent (feel free to throw some cinder blocks in the back of my truck) condition for my kids project/work truck? Cross members, frame supports and bed angles are being handled by my buddy with the steel shop. I just need a set of wood and strips. Thanks, Andy
Bed Wood Andy ; Are you handy with a router ? (IIRC you're a landlord) , if so , you can make up your own floor using some form of hardwood . there's maps / plans of the exact measurements on The 'Net . Failing that , Mar-K is THE Go To place ~ they'll have a properly made and drilled set of floorboards and they'll be out of the _correct_ Southern Hard Pine , many sell plain old pine boards and regular pine is rather soft and will die in a few years . (soft splinters and flakes) Remember to fit up the wood and make minor corrections as needed then take it all up again and treat it well , this means on the ends , the underside of the boards and in the various bolt holes drilled in it . proper treatment whilst disassembled means far longer service life of the wood .
Dead Wood IIRC (Nate~ you've passed on the acronym torch!) these beds are right at 4' wide on half tons? Get a piece (or two, if it's over 4 feet wide) of treated 3/4 plywood and a drill. It'll be a bed that will hold things together until any of your younguns might decide to take it to the next level. Just an idea...
I THINK the bed floor is wider than 4 feet by a little bit from what I have read in archives. Anybody have a bed than is in place that they can measure the overall dimension of the space occupied by bed wood and strips to see if a piece of treated plywood will fit? Zig man, that was the original plan...to do it in treated plywood so the kids have something to look forward to doing over again the period correct wasy as they got older and more confident in their skills. Problem with that is if the bed needs two sheets of treated plywood, it'll be just as well to buy the wood and strips from CP. Andy
Plywood Bed (hand goes up) ME ! ME ! Yes , it's a little bit wider than a 4' sheet of plywood BUT it'll still be cheaper to buy two sheets of exterior plywood and cut to suit then slather both sides and the edges too , with Tong Oil . Tong Oil is found in your hardware store's flooring isle and is from hardwood trees , it's nasty stuff to get on your hands but 5 years later my plywood is still doing fine . I just dropped the one sheet in the bed over the rotted original pine boards that have three holes where two DPO's & one So. Cal. idiot ( ) fell through.....
Andy, make your bed! Company might come over. Strictly from memory right now, I think that the 54 and 55.1 bed length is about 1/4" longer than the other AD's. Do you have an old bed strip that you can measure? I've got a set of bed strips for my '50 that I don't plan to use that we might could make a trade for. Bed strips in return for your daughter! Grab your bedsides and the front piece of the bed and put them together and measure the inside distance between the angle strips. That should give you an idea as to whether or not a 4 ft. piece of plywood would be wide enough.
plywood Plywoood measures 48" by 96" by the old standards. My 54 bed is exactly 50" wide from wall to wall and the wood is 77" long. Because the bed angles cover the edges, a sheet of plywood will sneak under the angle metal on each edge of the bed by 1/2". That's what I had in my high school '54, a sheet of 3/4" plywood cut short to fit in the bed, and under the bed side angles. Plan on replaceing your bed wood (eventually), it can be very attractive, and folks like wood on vehicles. I used CP's yellow pine bed wood, and metal bed strips. i have seen the metal trips screwed down on plywood where in a faux plank manner as well. Nate is right about southern yellow pine. I plan to replace my bed wood with Texas/Louisiana grown cypress boards some day. or maybe East Texas virgin long leaf pine (only found in old buildings today). Jim
Hi Jim, and thanks for the info on your '54 as we have the same truck. NIce to know that someone else has done a plywood bed as well. I will be using angle iron from my friend's steel shop for the bed side angles, so I can make it a little bigger to fit the plywood. Remember, this is my kids first project and I am building it with them with that in mind. Not doing it perfect this time around. I want them to have stuff to work on as they grow. keep them off the streets, you know and all that. so, doing the bed over the right way in the future is a project that they will tackle when the time is right. Once again, thanks for the precise measurements and the details about how you did the plywood bed in High school. Andy
