The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Inside wheel wells on 9ft bed

Can anyone here tell me how exactly these inside wheel wells on a 1 ton 9ft bed are assembled, the picture is missing some of the steel covers on top, I cannot seem to find any info on them. If anybody has pictures it would be very helpful. Thanks.

What model truck exactly are you working on?
Nothing in that photo looks factory original to me
So if it’s all custom fab that’s why you won’t find info on it in any documentation.
-s

The photo is not actually of my particular truck but just a photo to show what I'm up against, my truck box is currently apart so I cant show it. My truck is a 1946 GMC model 9434 1 ton express box pickup, same as the photo. This is a factory setup, from what I do know the 1 tons only had this setup 1/2 & 3/4 did not, seems that the 41-46 years did this, not sure of the AD styles.

Okay that makes sense now
Yeah the 47-53 trucks didn’t do that kind of inside box detail
If you can’t get documentation here or online searches I suggest you find another truck to use as an example
Give Amigos a call in Calvet and ask them if they have one of those in stock to look at amigosauto.com
But keep in mind sometimes they have no idea at the front desk what old trucks are actually in the yard.
If you are close to them it’s worth the trip out there
-s

Thanks, I'll take a look. Yeah, I'm finding out really quick here that this particular truck is one hard to find unicorn for fenders and boxes, the cab is the same as 1/2 & 3/4's.

Jim Carter (*The* Jim Carter of Jim Carter's Antique Truck Parts) has a '46 Duallie 1-ton pick with those features. I've taken a bunch of pictures of it so let me round them up for you.

Here ya go. Plus a '38 1.5-ton Napcoman and I checked out at Macungie a few years ago.

Hope they help.

Man, that is a cool truck.

Otto -- And I got to drive it around, too.

Ok, that makes sense now, looks like wood shaped to the wheel well. Now just to figure out how to shape it like that as it will have to be an inch thick or more. Or I just look at getting all metal wheel tubs made?? Thanks for the pictures John.

Inch thick? It looks like standard gauge steel to me in the photo you posted. Someone with an English wheel should be able to make two of those pretty easily.

You could make forms out of 2X lumber and bend a long strip of metal around it and then cut it to size.

Jim Carter’s truck seems to maybe have been repaired with wood on the inside wheel tubs.
What I , and probably others, are wondering is: is there 4 feet between the tubs!
Nice truck, of course! The GMC express, 1 ton, is gonna be nice too I’m sure.
Sounds rare, alright.

It's the wood in between the metal half moon shaped tin that bolts to the floor and the box side, the metal arc that is in the picture I showed goes over the top of the wood.

OK, I missed that the last photo of John’s was a different truck. 38.
Wish we could see the inside view of the Jim Carter dually.
But the 38 doesn’t seem to show signs of the wood half moon having been capped with metal.
If you have those pieces like in your photo, I would hope you rebuild the wood part and cap it.
C

I plan to try and rebuild it as per original, so I would definitely be capping those wooden pieces, will finish it off nicely. From what I understand is they did this to the 1 ton express boxes due to the larger tire size used and this was a way they could keep the body/box lower rather than having to raise the overall height of the truck.

I don't understand the purpose of the wooden half circles under the steel. I thought that was a wheel well.

Yeah, its a strange design for sure. There are ways one could do it with just metal, to make a box out of heavy steel, bolts and rivets, then finish off with some wood pieces in the wheel well? I guess not everything made sense even back then.

Since it's not a wheel well because it's filled with wood, what purpose does it serve? Why didn't they make the inside bed walls flat?

Is it possible that the wood could possibly be a steam-bent arc, possibly 1 1/2 or 2 inches thick, formed to the same curvature as the inner fender pieces?

Yes, an arc. I said half moon which would fill the and defeat the purpose !
I expect the wood was shaped by gluing uo 1/8 inch layers in the curve.
Use flat grain pine , like plywood.

Ok. That makes more sense. So the space behind the half moon isn't solid wood, it is a wheel well.

Yeah, it is a wheel well, I'm thinking maybe the idea was to use wood to try and keep the noise from rocks banging against metal to a minimum. I thought I read somewhere that they did this so that they could keep the box at a height lower like the 1/2 tons as well as I think the box is a bit wider than the 1/2 & 3/4 tons?, so keeping the box height lower and using larger tires required this design for the tires to sit in the well a little.

I'm a little late to the party here, but I'll chime in anyway. Wood was used as a spacer because that's the way things were done at that time. It would have been painted with the bed and not covered with metal.
Jim Carters truck is a 1946 1-1/2 ton model. Most 1-1/2 ton Pickup Express models were delivered with single rear wheels so this makes Jim's truck extra unusual. The Rusty truck, which I assume is a '38, is also a 1-1/2 ton model.
The 3/4 and 1 ton Chevy trucks, from their introduction in 1937, use a regular looking pickup bed. It had smooth sides but was longer than the 1/2 ton version, but NOT 9 feet. For '37, '38, and '39, the wheel base was only 10 inches longer than the 1/2 ton. I don't know when the 9 foot pickup bed appeared on 1 ton model Chevy or GMC trucks, but I don't think it bore much resemblance to the 9 footer that was on the pre-AD 1-1/2 ton models.

Mike

My truck is an original 1946 purchased in 1947 by my great grandfather, the express box on it from factory is a 9ft bed and has the same inside wheel arches as the pictures, it is also a single wheel truck. I think GM/Chevrolet started this style 1 ton in 1941 and up to 1946 for sure.