The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk A good or bad bed solution?

Wood bed - $1000's
Redo steel bed - $1000's
Rhinolining - $100's of dollars

Now, all of those are expensive (to me anyways) and I saw in a Classic Trucks magazine (THANKS JOE!) a guy that did his bed in marine capet - it repels water, is comfortable, tough, won't ruin, is cheap, and can be replaced fairly easily.

Anybody done this or know any setbacks, things I should look out for?

Only thing I'm worried about is water getting trapped underneath and forming MORE rust

Yep, that's exactly what will happen.

It all depends on how you plan to use the truck. If you will be using it for what it was designed to do then putting some steel plate in the bed would be durable. If you want a show truck then going with a polished oak or other wood is good. I plan to use the original yellow pine and regular steel strips. Should not be anywhere near $1,000s. An entire bed wood kit from most vendors is around $250 to $300 (Chevy Duty).

I would stay away from marine carpet. As for rust, it never sleeps.

I don't know how relevant this is for your application, but my buddy had a 80's Chevy with a cruddy bed and what he did was cheap, fast, and worked.

He sanded all the old paint and surface rust out of the back, then got two gallons of this thick tar like stuff designed to coat beds, and applied it with a paint brush.

The end result is a bed thats nearly indestructable and definately water proof (because when it rains with the tailgate up it fills up like a pool!) and his final cost was about $80.

He liked it so much, he did the floors in his '91 Astro cargo van that he uses for work AND his '90's full sized van he uses to haul his bands gear around in.

Last time I talked with him (just before I moved) it was still as rock solid as the day he put it in (going on 5 years).

Now I don't think i'd do that with a classic, since if you're handy with a router, a quick trip to the lumber yard would put a new pine bed in your truck for about the same kinda jack as the self applied "rhino liner" would.

Actually, mine is an 80's Chevy - an 85 Chevy

I think maybe I'll check this tar stuff out! Do you remember a name of it or anything?

Check the classic trucks website. Their is an article on their about brushing in that stuff in the bed of an old truck. They give tips and names and a whole bunch of stuff.

Ain't astroturf what Bill Clinton said he had in the back of his El Camino?

http://www.geocities.com/woogeroo/files/Truck/bedliners.txt

20-Jan-2003 08:46 4k

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I used Herculiner on my mom's s-10 a few years ago - didn't put it on thick enough - my goof. It's still on there, I've been meaning to add some more to it. It keeps stuff from slidin' around. She loves it.

Anyhoo - check out my quick lil write up - in that text file up there.

Also check out rockcrawler.com - tech section - look for their herculiner and durabak installs.

-W

if the wood ain't rotten and you just want it to look good do what thjey did from the factory and paint it with some black enamel use a good paint brush with fine brisels

Do-it yourself bed lining:

Herculiner By Classic Trucks Magazine