Like I mentioned, it took a week per piece to make the curved planks so they were the long pole in the tent. I may have been able to lessen the pre-soaking or the curing time on the form but once I had what I wanted I didn't want to rock the boat and change anything. The qtr sawn white oak was hard to find and expensive so I also didn't want to wait or pay for any extra due to my experimenting.
With that in mind, I was able to finish up the floor except for the curved pieces. To take advantage of the lull, I decided to sand and finish the wood and metal stripping in the area already completed. So I removed all the floor panels that I had completed so far to refinish them.
For the metal strips I simply painted them with black primer to keep them from rusting. I plan on eventually painting them with a lightly textured bed liner (black) to match the bed sides. I also replaced the temp hex head hardware with stainless button socket head bolts while I was at it.
For the wood, I really liked the natural wood color. I played around with a few stains but I kept coming back to the natural wood. Since the wood would need some type of protection I settled on a satin exterior poly for such. So I sanded the board tops with 100 grit then 200 grit to get out all the wood stains and abnormalities. Then I primed and painted the bottom-side of the wood a satin black (1 primer 2 topcoats) and then I sealed the top surface with 3 coats (light sanding between coats) of the exterior satin poly.
1949 Chevy Panel Truck A Project Journal I'm old but I make up for it by being immature.
