The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed 52 GMC bed board original finish

The old bed boards are disassembled and appear to have been stained with red stain many years ago. At least that's what the bottom and under the ware strips on the top look like. Not the black color that I'm familiar with on Chevies. This wood is so decrepit that I have a hard time believing that it was ever redone by anyone in the past. So, Did GMC use red stain as an OEM coating in 1952? If not, what? Thanks.

I don't think so. Here is a picture of an unrestored, original paint 49 GMC I had an opportunity to photograph in detail. On the underside in the linked picture you can clearly see it was flat black underneath. 49 bed underside What is interesting is the word "Narva" written in chalk or grease pencil and the number "167". The topside has obviously been recoated with something so we don't know about its original finish although in blowing up the couple of pictures I have of the top surface you can see traces of the Narva Green near the edge of the sides. 49 bed topside All this makes me wonder if the wood was installed in the bed and then the bed was painted. Just one of those mysteries that make this hobby so interesting.

Huck, thanks for all the info you've been helping me with lately! Another part of the red stain mystery on this '52 is that the metal strips were assembled from smaller lengths that were welded together to make them long enough to use. Like they were using scrap pieces from the ends of rolls and stretching materials during them Korean War. It just seems unlikely to me that some previous owner of this truck would remove original bed boards, replace them with pine, stain them red, and re-use crappy metal strips. A lot of work for not much improvement.

I really don't think that happened, more than likely a frugal effort on one of the truck's previous owners to make a makeshift repair. What I have learned about the Korean war era trucks was that the absence of bright work was in preparation to what GM thought was going to happen next, keep in mind 7 years earlier was end of WWII. There was no quality control discrepancies that I have read about in the manufacturing of late 51, 52-53 trucks

Upon closer inspection, I can see that this is not the original bed wood. Only 4 holes are drilled and supplied with the offset washers. I think now that when the original wood was replaced, the front 6" to 12" of each bed strip were rusted out. Probably a metal strip from another truck was cut into short lengths and welded onto the surviving shorter strips to salvage them. I think you're correct, sstock, about it being frugality and ingenuity. I sometimes forget that the readily available supply of after-market restoration supplies wasn't always as plentiful as it is today. The prior owner was probably more interested in getting the truck back to work than winning trophies with a fancy bed featuring exotic wood!

A picture of factory bed assembly 1951 (fixed). Looks to me at least in this view that those boards are painted prior to assembly.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/12315086455/in/set-72157640522200463

I'm going with black painted boards, each individually painted prior to assembly. I've done it twice already with acceptable results on other trucks. Thanks everybody! Dave