I don't have before-photos of the bedliner but Dad had salvaged the liner strips, and thriftily replaced the rotted boards with 2" planks in a unique pattern (however he could make it fit with what he had on hand). It definitely served the purpose. And THANK GOODNESS Dad salvaged the liner strips. Most were still in good condition. 3 had pitted rusting and several squared fastener holes had rust as well. Fortunately the neighbor down the street who does powder coating was able to sandblast with care, and the finished product turned out better than expected. True, when you look closely you can see the worn and pocked areas, but they are all in one piece!
Backing up a bit, I took my teenage help on this project to meet a local millwright, Bob D. (from whom I've bought wood for canoe paddles and end grain cutting boards). I let him select the wood. We have talked all along about this truck restoration theme of "the old meets the new" as we both had a strong desire to keep as much original while still being able to drive daily through the winter, and refreshing the interior was a strong desire. My son picked out cedar that Bob had milled from telephone poles. Its not what I would have gone with but in hindsight think it was the best choice as the cracks in the cedar maintain the "old" look even after refinishing. It was easy to work with the cedar, and with the odor of creosote still lingering I'm hoping for some additional rot resistance.
We ended up 1 length short due to some boards that were too cracked (and Bob lives a ways away) so we "made" the final board by splicing together four pieces; 2 at a time. The first 2 boards were off-set so that the gluing face was long enough for a study board. Basically, the 2 boards off-set made the 85" length (though each board was only 55"). The next 2 we glued the remaining 2 boards to the previous. For the butt ends we used the trick of mixing glue and sawdust then pushing into the seam (which is the same tactic I used for some of the split sections). It wouldn't pass the test of many woodworkers but we're happy with the finished product. The new support blocks were also made from glued cedar pieces.
Regarding the sills, many fastening holes were rusted through - especially the outer 2 liner strips, but all in all they were 70% good. Rather than scrap them and spend $500 for new I had the local machine shop make 1/8 strips with the precise hole pattern drilled in and slid those up the underside of each sill when fastening. This worked out great! It give the lower fastening support and the boards seem to be held fast.
Very happy with how this has turned out. Hoping for one more 50 degree day to spray some underliner sealant and have the main bed mounting bolts to fasten.
