The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk bed boards??? idea?

Hey, I'll post this in the bed forum too, but...
A friend is building a 65 Chevy shortbox show truck. I mean, this thing is a profesionally re-done EVERYTHING and will be for sale soon. Anyway, we've been kicking around the idea of building the bed floor out of plastic lumber... instead of buying a bed kit or making a metal floor or bedline or anything. Just wondered if anyone here had tried it. I think it's a great idea for longevity and strength and at this point, this truck is SO perfect that the cost isn't going to be a huge issue. Any experience??? I mean, this is a $20,000 truck.

RMillburn,

Don't know if this is of any help, but here's a previous discussion on the topic.

Previous discussion on Fake Bedwood

Plastic? Oh no, please don't do it. Please........
please, please.

REAL WOOD!! is the right way to go for a truck that nice!!

If you want to go plastic, get some of the Corian (sp?) granite looking counter top material and throw in a couple of flame or racing strip inlays.

My $.02 Buddy

The guy who owns Stockton Wheel has a really cool '56 Ford stub-nose flat bed truck that's been hot-rodded. (lowered, chrome Alcoa wheels, etc).
He actually uses the truck, too, and what he did for the flat bed deck boards was used boards made of recycled rubber. Not only can you not hurt them, but with tire foam they look brand new, stuff doesn't slide on them, and I would think all that rubber is going to quiet down the truck a little bit.
I don't know where he got them, but they're readily available for the commercial truck industry.
Might point you in the right direction.
Brad

I took a look at the Stockton truck, the bed floor looked great for a flatbed. If you want a nice looking pretty floor then you may look for something else. The rubber stuff was nice, but would probably not look good enough for a $20,000 pickup.

I would use real wood, and start asking what the best finish is for truck bed wood.

I would use real wood. As far as finishing is concerned I've always used five or six coats of a good marine varnish with a high UV filter. My theory is if it's good enough to withstand the elements in a marine environment it's probably going to work in a truck body. Another factor in this is ease of repairing/refinishing. If you have some exotic plastic that got dinged or scratched, can you duplicate the original finish? With spar varnish this isn't a problem.

Slomotion:

That Spar Varnish method is recommended in the Bed Forum.

Some people even use poly on top of the spar varish.

Sorry, I didn't check out that forum, I was just following this thread. I built boats for a few years and was just drawing on that experience.

I can picture a teak deck as the bed floor, as in a top line pleasure boat.

I can't imagine a $20,000 truck debating plastic over wood. Done correctly, the wood will last 50+ years. My 55 1st series still has ths the original wood bed and it's a daily driver, mo like a 20 footer than $20,000.