The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Aluminum boards for bed...

I am thinking about fabing some aluminum boards
to replace the wooden ones in my 57 gmc ....
has anyone else done this???

1. I could make them free form.... tough enough
to hold shape and weight by themselves..OR

2. I could use cheaper wooden boards and coat
them with a weather defeating spray on... then
use them as the "inner structure" of the plank
and just cover them with aluminum skins....

What kind of treatment would you give the
wood if I went the planks with skins route???
I have quite a bit of experience polishing
aluminum...but not really to much with wood..

Any thoughts on how to complete this mission??
I think the finished polished aluminum planks
would look absolutely gorgeous...

go for it, the only yime i have seen metal covering wood the wood eventualy became a problem I don't know how you would seal it. You might glue the aluminum to the wood.The first idea would have more apeal to me,ive used traileras with aluminum floors and like the look . Good luck...Ronnie

Interesting idea! Would something like this work?


http://www.lockdry.com/


Stuart

If you use wood anywhere in your design, you should give it a few coats of spar varnish to protect it. ALL sides, especially the ends. Light sanding with 220 between coats. Good luck and post pics of it when it's done. I would love to see it.

atomarc- those would be good boards without the
powder coat... the small ribs would pose some problem in the polishing but might be overcome with right technique... perhaps I will see if I can get them to send me a sample to look at..
... nice suggestion..

I have seen alu-minimum diamond plate - but its costly. Strong and much lighter than steel. I used boards instead of diamond plate on 59 flat bed when I found out how much the steel diamond plate would cost and weigh.

The aluminum will cost a bundle, especially diamondplate. I had this thought too, several years ago. Tried to find aluminum scraps big enough to use, but they were regularly snapped up as soon as they came in the salvage yard.

You would likely have to do a inner structure of wood for it to be sturdy enough.

Most people give up on the idea and just go with a steel diamond plate sheet - which is heavy but great in the winter - or some variation on plywood sheets.

Instead of wood for the "inner structure", could you use the new type manufactured deck materials? Sealing would not be an issue for any future wood failures. Because the deck material is a manufactered product, basically plastic, I think you would find it easy to work with and bond to aluminum.
Good luck!
Bob

Yeah, actually, I've recently seen the plastic deck boards used in the bed of an old pick up instead of wood. It was a neat concept and very practical, but to me it didn't look as good as oak. The wooden bed is one of the features of these trucks that make them so attractive to me.

What would you do with the aluminum, polish it?

Yes... I would polish the aluminum.. I used to work for a Gasoline Tanker company... we polished entire 48ft long trailers..near chrome like..
nice suggestion BigPop.... I am averse to the
oak for gouging, cost, and maintainability reasons....I considered going with a wood called
"apitong"..I believe..hope I didnt spell that wrong..it is used on the decks of flatbed 18wheeler trailers.... but I will probably take the time to do the aluminum...I really think the solving of the aluminum bed problem ... materials and fab won't be completely taxing... it should be a fun adventure... polishing might take me
half a day for a really top flight job if the
initial material is condusive....
I also considered going to the boneyard and cutting the bottom of the bed from a regular
73-87 Chevy longbed...this would give me a factory ribbed look for NO money...then just cutting it to fit my 57 stepside and welding it in.If the sides of the bed were munched on the donor you were cutting on...you'd pay nothing.
I'm pretty set on the aluminum...I really love polished aluminum in almost any application..
...it is so easy to make look nice...and it doesn't rust... care, even when polished,is very
minimal....

I most likely won't use diamond plate... aluminum or steel..

I am more handy w/ wood than metal.. All wood will rot over time... with the exception of cedar or teak... which is why its so expensive. If you were to use such wood - you would probably P*ss off a lot of woodworkers for covering up such beatiful wood. So you can use pine for your structure, which will rot, and will still be expensive & heavy. Not to mention you will have to plane it to get it perfectly square. I think you are making more work for yourself.

Long story short- forget about the wood. I think automark is on the right track w/ the pre-manf. treads. Or if you want to go completly hand built, I would think if you were to make alumn. 2x6 "boards" the strenght added by bending the edges over 90 degrees will add ALOT of strenght. put some crossbraces underneath and it should be ridged enough to hold up. I wouldn't "use" your bed. but it would be fine for show.

one more thought. I think it would be cool if you reversed the pattern on your bed, that is instead of having 6" of wood seperated by 1" of metal, have 6" of metal seperated by 1" of wood.

Yeah that would be interesting. Sounds like a lot of work though.

I bought my truck with the bed made out of that greenish preserved wood. The previous owner did that because it was strictly a work truck and used to haul rocks. But this beat up the bed pretty badly, and the wood is kind of ugly. I have plans to redo my bed, but I'm not yet sure how I'm going to do that. I might just straighten out the walls the best I can with a hammer and dolly, and then use All-Metal filler on both sides and paint. That way, it's stock looking. And it'll get oak planking. Honey oak with a red truck looks nice.

Your idea could look very cool and custom, but keep in mind that polished aluminum will scratch easily too. So its looks can be compromised just as easily as wood if you ever use it for work.

How about getting ahold of an old set of extruded aluminum bleachers and polishing the seats and using them as the bed material? They should be strong enough and easy to fit. It seems like every high school has a few old sets they are not using.

88 up Chevy has no bolt holes and fits good. My buddy found a 89 stepside bed at the body shop the guy just gave it to him. He cut the floor out of it and fabbed mounts on the bottom of it.It looks factory when you get through.

Here is a link where they used steel panels to make the bed floor. Maybe the same could be fabbed from aluminum sheet or aluminum diamond plate. http://www.customclassictrucks.com/howto/7020/