I was listening to a home improvement talk show Saturday and they were discussing Pine floors. The caller was complaining about the gaps between the boards and wanted to find a filler for them. The moderator was telling the caller that the Pine swelled across the grain much more than hardwood and that any filler would just be forced out in the summer time when the humidity increased. Now anyone that has been around for any length of time knows that wood absorbs moisture and will expand across the grain in the humid weather and shrink in the winter when things dry out. Just wondering how much of a factor this is with the pick up bed. Also quarter sawn might not warp as bad but not be as strong as face sawn, any thoughts on that??
My 1950 pickup still has the original bed wood and other than a couple spots where the boards have had a sharp heavy load dropped on them are in pretty solid condition. The surface grain is raised a little on the boards but they look good under that. I believe that if I ran them through the planer and took a sixteenth or so off that they would be quite presentable. I cut two 1.5” plugs out over the upper bolts when I replaced the shocks, which I covered with aluminum plugs that I spun up on the lathe. This gave me a good cross sectional view of bed wood and its grain. But enough about that!
Somthing else I was wondering about this morning was whether Oak might be a better choice for bed wood. I was talking to a local hardwood storeowner and White Oak was what he recommended as a replacement, probably cuz he sold hardwood and not pine. Our sponsor sells both Yellow Pine and Red Oak bed board kits. I always thought the reason for using the hardwoods was simply because some people want to finish the bed rather than paint it. The choice of bed wood pretty much runs the full gamut of woods from coniferous trees to the most exotic tropical hardwoods. I’ve seen old English garden benches made of Teak, which would really hold up good to the weather but probably would not take to much punishment. I’ve been reading about the gates of St. Peter's at Rome, which stood for 1,100 years, these were made of Cypress a beautiful wood for a bed. Old Iron Sides built in 1798 and still in commission is made of Southern Live Oak a very close relative to White Oak. Although Cherry, Maple and Walnut are beautiful woods I doubt if they could stand up to the elements.
I suppose it all depends on how you are going to use the truck. A trailer queen would probably wear a bed of Zebrawood, Maple or Cherry for many years if kept inside. A daily driver to and from the office and used to move the collage kids in and out of the dorm a couple of times a year might do just fine with a nice Golden Oak bed. Then there is the guy that is actually gonna continue to work his old gal well into her old age hauling a load of grain, gravel or hay, and to this end might just be better off with plain old Southern Yeller Pine painted black!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
