Originally posted by Jed:
but the wooden beds were really a factory produced item and I believe are VERY rare.
I really don't think that they were from the "factory" if what you mean by "factory" if GM. I checked both the 1941 and 1946 Chevrolet Truck Data Books - for Chevrolet Salesmen and there are no flat beds in there with the exception of the biger trucks. I get the impression you are talking here about a 1/2 ton. There were 3/4 ton (3600 Model Group) flat bed and stake trucks. I still believe that the flat bed trucks the wood was added after the factory.
Here are three pages that I scanned into a .pdf that show one of the many options how the trucks could be purchased for various after market box/beds/etc...
adobe scanned page of body option photo of one with a wood box This is the best photo I have of a stake bed truck which is on page two of the adobe .pdf document.
stake truck And finally a photo of the Model 3609 with what looks like the back 1/2 removed. This is the best i could come up with. I thought I had a more recent photo of one of these but I can't locate it.
Model 3609
