The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Changed my mind

My original plan was to use red oak for the bed wood. Now I have decided to use cypress. Yesterday I bought the wood and today I got it planed, sized and sanded. Hopefully next Saturday I can start applying the spar urethane clearcoat.

The cypress should make a good looking floor and will definitely hold up to the elements. Paid $83.00 for the lumber which is way less than the oak would have cost.

Cypress sounds cool. Cutting the bedwood and finishing was the most rewarding part of re-doing my truck so far. When done, it was fun to know that the pile of boards came to the house as just that...a pile of boards and an afternoon of work turned them into something nice looking and functional. I did Pine with the thought that someday, I can upgrade if I want.

Post pics of the cypress when you are done. I would like to see them.

bassman, I ended up using oak just because I couldn't find cypress. I winter in flordia and went to all the local saw mills with zero result.
will b waiting for the pic's. wonder how much it would cost to have you ship enough??

Bigbassman,

Hope you don't mind if I move this to the "Bed" forums. Gonna try to keep stuff where they belong. Hopefully soon, we'll move that whole forum out of the "clinics" portion and into the restoration part.

Thanks,
Peggy

I actually got started on the spar urethane coating this afternoon. I set up some plastic saw horses in the dining room and brought in half on the boards so I could get going on them. Of course I had to clear it with the wife first. She usually lets me get away with stuff like this and this time was no different. What a gal.

I got the back side and all edges coated today and tomorrow will start on the first coat for the face of the boards. Going to do a light sanding between coats.

I will post pics after I get it all done and installed in the bed.

Gazim, the shipping would probably be pretty high. I made a mistake last week when I ordered a front bumper for my truck. Didn't realize it until the bumper arrived but I had entered the number for a GMC Jimmy instead of a chevy truck. Dang return shipping was $40.00. Original shipping was half that. UPS said the vendor gets cut rates because of the volume of business they do compared to an individual. The shipping cost is based on wieght and the width, height and length of the package being shipped. Based on shipping cost for the bumper, I am sure that to ship cypress would be astronomical.

Well, send me pictures as soon as possible. I hunted for 3 months in flordia, Show me what I missed at least.

Gazim,
Here is a link to a couple of pics of the four boards I have done so far. I may put one more coat of spar urethane on them tomorrow if needed.
Cypress boards

Robin and Bassman, I am In love,, I have red oak now and it looks very good, but stink compared to the cypress. A gotta have item. will check out the two websites today. Be in Fl. jan 5th and maybe I can convince someone to carry them back for me, thanks.
anybody interested in a red oak bed you can just slide in? 8 coats urthane.

I replaced the cypress with pine wood in a fella's '68, it was not "hard enough"-the edges where it is routed for the strips broke off on almost every board. He had redone the truck, then while driving(never hauling anything) the boards started cracking apart. Maybe he didn't install it right, maybe it was inferior boards, maybe routed too deep, but he was told it is not tough enough to stand up to routed edges. Anyway, the pine has done fine. My .02. Brian

Brian, hopefully I won't have that problem. It sure would be a shame after all the work to find out that I made a bad choice. The boards seem to be strong enough to not have a problem but only time will tell.
The wood is absolutely beatiful and I am hoping to get it installed this coming weekend. If I do, I will post some pics to show it off.