The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Fresh bed pics.

Well I finally got around to building/installing the bed wood in the gmc. I had my dad rip and cut the grooves in some cheap lowes pine. With my $50 gift card I had there I think im 50 bucks in material out of pocket. I had already bought some good exterior paint at the hardware store a while back on sale. Just a satin black that seems durable enough for me. I did this just to keep with my stock looking “theme” of the truck. Im very happy with it so far. Its the exact look I was goin for. Last year I bought the angle strips and wear strips from jim carter so those were on my shelf waiting for me to install when I finally had time. I will honestly say this job was a total pain in my ......well you know. It pretty much fought me the whole way.....but the end result was pretty good or “good nuff” for what I need. Tractor supply supplied the ultra cheap bulk hardware for the job. I already dumped a bunch of sawdust and metal dust in the bed and rubbed it around to give it some patina to blend in and look more authentic to the truck. I also already put it to work today! Heres some pics...

Looks good, nice job!

Looks great, a few loads in the bed and it will look just right.

Wish we lived closer to each other and I’d ask your dad to help me make some bed wood for my ‘50. You both did a great job. Looks great!

2 passes on on a table saw is pretty straightforward. The measurements of where the groves actually go are the hardest part. We messed up and went off the specs online and they were way off. Not sure why. Might have been the wear strips were aftermarket and made to a different dimension or something else. Either way we had to cut them twice but we got it done.

That turned out great! I see mine needs a recoat (Minwax) from over the winter, I should have gone that paint route.

in my '63 1/2t swb i actually used 3/4" high grade exterior grade plywood ripped into strips then the grooves ripped down the edges on the table saw, soaked both sides with penetrating sealer and linseed oil. I was afraid it might delaminate over time but never did in the 15 or so years I had it. Didn't have to worry about warpage or knots. nobody would've guessed

[img]https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/download/Number/30174/filename/rear of box no tailgate.JPG[/img]Do you have pictures of the plywood planked box? I have a 9' box and was thinking of using plywood as well. James S

Here is a link for a website that explains the process and he cautions about the different size strips being offered today.

https://gmcpauls.com/47-72_BedWood_Info.htm

We had great results using the dimensions on that page for the bed on a ‘49 3100. We did run some test pieces to confirm that our replacement strips would fit the grooves properly.

My strips fit the grooves perfectly...... problem was when I laid it out in the bed by the time I was half way across I was like 2.5” too far across. The strips were actually spacing the boards out too far apart. So we made a edit and places the grooves in farther from the edge and that solved it. It was still a fight though because the front panel has a little bow in it and the front pass corner of the bed was tweaked so I did some sledge hammering and prying and jacking/blocking to get everything to fit. She was a used truck so nothing was perfect. Its still all original everything in the bed besides wood. If I had started with a bunch of new parts assembled on the ground Im sure it would have been easier.

Thanks for the heads up on some of the pitfalls. I’ll be doing a new bed sometime in the future, so you helped me and I’m sure others.

That turned out pretty slick there Barnfind49.