Gene, the bed frame was fabricated to my design. A much stronger version of an original grain truck. The truck is going to haul antique tractors, farm equipment and such. That puts the 5 tons of weight on 4 small spots and not spread out like a load of corn. I also narrowed the bed to the width of the duals to make it a more "in town" friendly.
The wood is black walnut that I milled from wide slabs at 1.25" thick (6/4).
Got the hood mounted today. The first problem was that the curve of the back was a bit off. The back corners would rub on the sides of cowl while the center was too high. Probably due to storage and prep and paint work. Since I couldn't be on both sides to try to pull the ends out, I installed the hood springs. This gave enough resistance to spread the ends so it could close to check the fit. Front lays right into place with pretty even side spacing and front smooth with the front of the fenders.
Of course, trying to adjust the back to sit down on the cowl was pretty much impossible with the springs on. So I taped some cardboard on the sides of the cowl to protect the paint and hold the ends out and removed the springs.
That was as far as I got. I will work on hinge fit and may have to loosen the 4 nuts on the rear brace center joint to see if that will flatten the bow.
