My strips fit the grooves perfectly...... problem was when I laid it out in the bed by the time I was half way across I was like 2.5” too far across. The strips were actually spacing the boards out too far apart. So we made a edit and places the grooves in farther from the edge and that solved it. It was still a fight though because the front panel has a little bow in it and the front pass corner of the bed was tweaked so I did some sledge hammering and prying and jacking/blocking to get everything to fit. She was a used truck so nothing was perfect. Its still all original everything in the bed besides wood. If I had started with a bunch of new parts assembled on the ground Im sure it would have been easier.