The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Plywood Bed

I just decided to put in a treated plywood bed.
It looks OK and works great.

Looks like it will get ur done to me

Yeah, this is a slow truck now a show truck.

Maybe you should have painted it on all sides(or varnish) first to protect it???

Gazim- I think it is treated.

I'm happy with my plywood too. Alberto painted all sides & edges with black paint.

Tab- It looks good and plenty sturdy. Nice to see you again.

I suppose it just depends on what your use your truck for but it would be great to have cut a some small groves in it and put the bed strips on the plywood like the panels. Just a thought for the future.

It looks like a working truck, and that's what they were designed to do, after all. Nice job!

Thanks, MexicoSab! I'm Baa-aaak...

Yeah, it's treated. It should be good for at least 20 years.

I thought about staining it but probably won't.

Yeah, could groove it and install the strips but that's a lot of work for little reward.

I couldn't get the thing in whole so I had to cut it in half. I probably could have if I had another person helping me but that's the way it goes....

My grandfather did the same thing to his truck many years ago. The plywood has rotted out some now, so I tore out the plywood last night and went to work on the old wood (also partially rotted ergo the plywood installation)and strips. He put a clear sealant of some kind on it like a varethane or urethane finish. It looked great but was starting to rot in the corners. I plan on going back to yellow pine, though I haven't decided on the type of metal strips yet (thinking about going for the purtty stainless steel strips to dress the old truck up a bit ).

Looks real good to me! A buddy just did that with his 51. He used 3 pieces all about the same width. He had a one inch gap between them so just picked up some flat steel strips, painted them and screwed them down.
My old wood is starting to crack and crown and some of my bed strips were rusty (painted over it) and I am slowly thinking about going that route as well.

Tab, I think that looks really cool! What thickness of plywood did you use? I've got a 54 longbox I'm gonna have to do and I think you JUST provided me my answer on what to use for a new, neat looking floor. Oh, why did you have to cut it in two? randy

randy:

Sorry for the delayed response. I've been kinda busy.

I used treated, 3/4" plywood. I had to cut it because I couldn't get it under the edge stripping on the fenders as a whole piece. I could have done so if I removed the bed but I'm doing this alone and it would have been a huge pain. But actually I didn't have to cut it down the center because I changed plans and put some cedar strips along the fender edge which hold the bed to the frame then I just layed the plywood in, went underneath with a can of spray paint to mark the bolt holes. I then removed and drilled the plywood, counter sunk the offset washers and bolted it down. I originally had planned to have the plywood go underneath the fender hold down strips and that's why I cut the plywood down the center but it was easier to put the cedar in there then lay the plywood in after the fenders were secure. It will also make it easier to fix if and when that wood needs to be replaced.

I hope that this makes sense. :rolleyes:

Tab,
You didn't use my Trick for the day.

Go to your better wood suppliers and get a piece of ping pong table plywood. They are 5' x 9'. Have them rip the piece the way you want it. That's what I have done. I then layed 3-4 pieces of Stainless steel bed stripping on top and drilled.

Works perfectly for a daily driver hauler.

Never heard about the ping-pong plywood. Interesting....

But The way I did it was pretty fast. I put cedar strips along the fender hold down strips then layed the plywood down, centered it, marked the bolt holes with spray paint, drilled and countersunk and bolted it down. It will also be fast when I have to replace it, in, oh, about 25 years.....

Tab,

The cedar strips on the sides is a good idea. The bed something like 49 inches, which is short of the 48 inch width of a sheet of plywood.

I bought my yellow pine at Shamburgher lumber on Mockingbird lane in Dallas. I dried them, ripped them to width and used a router/tablesaw combination for the steel strip grooves. All in all I think it cost under $150 to do the bed.

oldbluetruck: That will look very nice BUT ya better keep it out of the rain.