Stovebolt.com Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Restore original bed wood

I restored the original bed wood in my1947.2 longbed panel truck. The edge pieces are still black, the middle pieces are worn and cracked.

I decided to use wood glue to repair the cracks. A small front edge piece came out in Three pieces.

The middle plank was split lengthwise and laterally, so required some creative clamping.

I ran a sander over all surfaces, and then used water to clean all the wood. There was a gear oil stain in the middle of several boards from when I had a transission in the bed I think. I used some spray Bleach Cleaner on that area followed by a degreaser cleaner a couple times.
The wood glue shrank a bit, I used wood filler on the repaired cracks as well as the gouges. I shopped for a stainable wood filler for oil based stain. My first try left the filler standing out visually.

I’m using Boiled Linseed Oil and Lampblack type of finish. I located 1 kilo of Lampblack for $60.00, could not find it anywhere. I did find a 4oz container of Marsblack at an art supply store so that is what I’m using. From what I have read, Lampblack is soot collected from burning Carbon Oxide, or Coal Oil. It may have a bluish hue after application. Marsblack is made from Iron Oxide, I think there is a reddish hue after application, but that may be from the wood or the Boiled Linseed Oil. I found some 2oz condiment containers at the grocery store that work good for mixing small test batches. I got distracted and left the lid not snapped tight. I went back and shook it one more time to mix, and it slopped out on my work surface. The ratio of One Quart Boiled Linseed Oil to 1oz Lampblack, I figure 2oz oil to 1/8 teaspoon pigment. It looked good, but I want it darker, so my final mix is 1qt oil to 1.5oz pigment.
I mixed up some wood filler with pigment.

The middle boards that were worn down took a lot of wood filler. I started with the darker filler. I got creative and used the untinted filler for the worn areas of lighter wood. As the bedwood was worn down over time, the lighter bands show greater wear. In the end, all of the filler became stained so it didn’t seem to matter if I tinted it or not. I did apply extra stain to the middle of the middle boards to compensate for the greatest worn area, it’s still lighter there, but I’m happy with the results. I decided to make a template of the bedwood for longbed panel truck, traced it on a big sheet of paper. This picture shows 2 coats.

I put 2 coats of stain on all surfaces, and 2 more on the top surface. Finally 1 coat of polyurethane on the top surface, mainly to keep any pigment from leaching onto anything I put in the bed. I don’t know if that could happen, but I did that anyway. Reason for not covering all surfaces with polyurethane, the wood needs to breathe. The original design of wood planks and bed strips accouted for the expansion and contraction of the wood from humidity. I probably should have just used plywood since this is a panel truck. Plywood was used in suburbans to keep road dust out of the passenger area. I read about the 1 Qt. Boiled Linseed oil and 1 oz. Lampblack mixture, but looking at the original wood that is still black, I think there was a lot more lampblack, it is a solid black.

Looks great! Nice work

Hi guys,
Been following this thread for awhile during a lengthy restore on my '53' 3600. I decided to go with the Boiled Linseed Oil and LampBlack to be close to original.
I am to apply it to the new bed boards purchased from Chevy Duty awhile back. For prep, I can't decide how much sanding and what grit to use on the wood- I think white or yellow pine.
There's a lot of info here in Stovebolt and in general on-line regarding roughing up new wood before wiping the BLO/Lampblack on.
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

Wipe the bare wood with a damp rag to open the grain before putting on the home brew.