I'm working on my 59 3800 1-ton 9ft bed right now. This is my second time building a wooden floor bed, I replaced the bed on my daily driver 1980 GMC first I took what was left of the wood planks and used a piece of it for a templet, I then went to a country sawmill and bought number 2 oak I had it planed and sanded on one side, I took it all to a friend that is a retired carpenter he used a router to duplicate the original cut in the wood from the templet. He said any cabinet shop can do it for you, I then ordered new bed strips from mar-k had them powder coated went to a local nut&bolt store and got all stainless hardware it looks almost original and works fine. I went too lowes and got some deck stain and water seal. Now the oak is not super beautiful like the high dollar stuff in the catalogs it has knots but I think it gives it nice look. The oak was only $40 the powder coating $70 $40 for the hardware and I think $100 or the strips . I've started the same process on my 59 3800 ton looks just the same as the 80 GMC only 1ft longer the cost was almost the same you could do all this without routing the groves in the wood, but when the stips are in the groves and the wood gets dry it tightens everything up just right This is just a cheepskates way of doing it but it workd for me
