Hello all! Just joined here not all that long ago although I have been a lurker for quite a while. This is going to get a bit long winded so bear with me please.
So what I have been looking for for quite some time is anyone who can give me details of how a 901 1-ton truck bed is built on a 28. I have done quite extensive web research looking at many many pictures. Found lot's of pictures of home built beds, that look real close, but the 901 bed has clad steel sides, and hides the wood under the bed. From the picture I have found it also looks like the bed floor framing is clad separate from the sides.
I don't think it is built like a stake box where it has the two long beams that bolt to the main frame. It doesn't appear to ride high enough on the truck for that. But if it doesn't have main beams under it, at 8ft long IDK how the rear part of the bed that cantleavers over the frame would be supported. I believe the floor boards them selves to be 1-1/4" thick, so this may allow it to hang over without beams once the vertical sides are fastened to it.
As to the sides, they have steel straps with the bend to them that allow for a flare board at the top. They lay to the inside of the box, not over the outside steel cladded wood. The bed sides are made of more than one piece of board and these straps join the board sides together (I believe the sides to be two boards high). I also think these steel straps may be made of hammered round stock so they end up with a threaded stud on the bottom so they bolt through the floor holding the sides on. This is much like how a horse drawn wagon is built from what I can tell. I know that there are like just flat 1/8" x 1-1/8" or 1-1/4" steel slats over the floor board seems that are not routered in, so they stand above the wood. IDK how they are fastened, but there is one member here (Bearsfan I think with the blue huckster pictures on here) that has good pictures of how the strips are fastened on his bed. Weather it is correct or not I am unsure.
I am a member on the VCCA site as well and have a thread over there, and got a fair amount of info out of a member there, but need more. I also reached out to several other members by private message, but didn't find any that had that type of box on a 1-ton truck. Hopefully someone here can help me recreate this bed for my truck.
Attached is the 901 box, and here is a link to the VCCA discussion. It actually talks of my truck being a 27LM, but clues along the way have led me to believe it is more likely an early 28LO Dean over there posted my a lot of good photos of his huckster box, but that is a 1/2-ton chassis so frames out different I think than a 1-ton would although there are construction similarities. Thanks, David
https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/457469/re-no-901-open-express.html#Post457469Here is a box that is built on a 1-ton chassis that shows the detail better of the separate cladding between bottom frame and sides.
147472171_1927ChevyTruck.jpg.a5a741c5eef35b7ff17361bf7776c348.jpg (1200×900) (invisioncic.com)
