The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed 1959 Fleetside long bed wood dimensions

Looking for the correct dimensions for the white oak boards in the bed of my 59. Plywood now and I want to put it back to original, I have a neighbor with his own sawmill willing to make them for me but I need to give him the dimensions. Who makes the correct bed rail strips as I have no hardware either. Appreciate any help.

I found this for a 1959 fleetside...Don’t know if this will help but here goes. I just spent the last
six months looking for the correct measurements for a 59 fleetside pick-up, it
appears no one has them or those that do don’t want to share. After getting a
person known only to me as wonder truck at chevytalk.com to measure his bed wood
I have deducted that these are the measurements. Wonder truck measured from
center bolt to center bolt. They are as follows 4 1/2, 5 1/2, 5 1/2, 7 1/2, 5
1/2, 7 1/2, 7 1/2, 5 1/2, 7 1/2, 5 1/2, 5 1/2, 4 1/2 which totals the bed width
72 in. I deducted 3/8 in between each bed wood plank and came up with these
measurements. 4 5/16 before and behind the wheel tub, 5 1/8 before and behind
the wheel tub, 5 1/8, 7 1/8, 5 1/8, 7 1/8, 7 1/8, 5 1/8, 7 1/8, 5 1/8, 5 1/8
before and behind the wheel tub, 4 5/15 before and behind wheel tub. I am told
that this is considered a 16 board setup. I have had several people that
advertised bed wood for sale everything from 10, 12, 14 board kits that will fit
but since I want the bed wood correct I kept searching for the correct
measurements. I believe that these are the correct measurements.

Go to GMC Paul’s site there is info on sizes for the wood beds.

The numbers provided by Guitplayer above are correct. Cut the 5/8" wide notch on each side of the boards so that the bed strip will fit with allowance for expansion of the boards. There are 16 boards total. The outermost 4 boards of course only are notched on the inboard edge.

Mark

Try Mack Products in MO LINK for bed strips. They have apparently taken over Mar-K's product line. Although they don't show them on their website now, it would be worth a call.

Great information, what thickness are they?

Here's a screenshot from GMCPaul's site. 3/4" thickness. Has the dimensions for the edge grooves as well.

I made mine thicker than 3/4 to be slightly higher than the metal edge and no groove`s. They set up rot with
water and dirt traveling in there. Slight gap at each end for water to drain off.

I also used one inch boards .I had to trim down the edge of the two boards that meet up to the edge of the box so they would fit under the angled bed strips and also needed longer bolts .I put the groove in for the strips to grab but put a good coat of stain and also drilled a few drain holes in the grooves.

Nice! The knife edge of the strips, will more than grip the wood.

A few pics