The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed 1948 1/2 Ton Wood Bed

We purchased a wood bed kit from Classic Parts of America and being our first time in assembling such a bed we have a couple of concerns that you'll could help us with:

1- The photo attached shows the Left hand angle strip (which is yet to be attached to side panel) how it sits on top of the 4 ½ " Oak Wood board. As you can observe the wood board is not routed cutout so that the cupped edge of the angle strip sits flat on the board. Is this normal for the board to not have been routed?

2- Once you lay the board and space them out to allow access to the front and back sills bolt holes the strips contour does not sit properly to retain the boards at either side of it. See attached photo.

I believe you have the angle strip on the wrong side. It should lap over the rear cross-sill. Swapping sides with your angle strips would make the holes match up at front and back with the other bed strips. The bed wood under the angle strip is secured to the angle strip with the bolts rather than with the center strips which use the notches in the boards to secure them. If the board widths are correct, they should match up with the holes in the cross-sills for the bolts and have roughly the same gap where the bolts go. It looks to me like on your second picture, that you have the outer board too far outboard. You should start in the center and go toward the outside edges, THEN drill the holes in the outer board to bolt to the angle strips.

You can see the overlap of the angle strips if you zoom in on the attached picture.

Moving your thread to Making A Stovebolt Bed, where it'll be more on topic.

Kevin, thanks for sharing your project. It's almost like seeing our truck in its past and present condition.
As to the angle strips I'll try that today. Looking back at old photos of the bed I can say that somewhere along our trucks prior life the side angle strips did not extend over the rear sill (ref tailgate.) I've compared how these angle strips sit in relation to the forward bed panel sill and it appears that the gap between the edge of the angle strip and the forward panel skin is approximately like your configuration. Lets see.
Also you mention starting board layout from the center. I'll see my results. However, just like pictures in your project file photos and Mar-K instruction pages I started from left and right angle strips.

Great photo project book. Ours looks somewhat like it but we only have it in Google Photos.

that sure looks like it will cause problems. Skid strips....being flush with the wood serve little purpose
in relation to preventing marks on the wood. The channels will collect dirt , moisture and debris which set up rot.
Of course . strips set on top of the wood w/o channels will hold them down just as well. Better in fact as there is more wood to hold them down.
Knife blade edge to the strip will cut into the wood once tightened down.
And have rise to the strip to protect the wood when sliding things in and out.
My 2 cents of experience

Like Guitplayer said, the notches in the wood may be a little too deep. Normally the strips sit a bit proud of the wood. This site has some good information on bed wood dimensions.

I can confirm that Kevin's bedside angle strips extending over the rear sill of the tailgate is, in fact, the way it left the factory. It is extremely unlikely that the angle strips on your truck (Texas) ever stopped before the sill.

My truck still has its original bed installed and the angle strips sit on top of the sill.

Otto, Attached is a photo of the bed (as original as it may have been) when we got it. At that time we paid no attention to the angles and strips so its possible. See photo

However, after Kevin's recommendation today we have recognized that Kevin's installation is the way to go and now all our new boards, angles and strips holes aligne, and the strips shape aligne with boards way better. Still fine tuning to be done. See photo.

Third foto show side by side end view of old and new angle strips. For sure, and in my opinion, the shape of the old angles conformed better to the side panels and routed boards.

The 4th foto shows how placing the angle strip over the rear sill causes the angle strip to not press down on the wood board (leaves approx 1" of the wood board.)

Your phot appears to show the bedside angle strip resting on the sill, which is the way my truck is and the way Kevin built his truck. All the flat strips stop at the sill.

Got it. Thanks. So no concern about that inch of the wood at the front panel area that’s not under the angle strip?

That's correct. Notice that if the angle strip went all the way to the front of the bed, it would interfere with the front bed panel flange that attaches to the bedside.