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

I checked the bed section, but saw no post on this. My question is has anyone put a plywood bed versus the 'plank' style? If so, how did it go? I just think plywood would be a good alternative to OEM.

The standard 4X8 sheet does not cover the bed so you would have to splice it in which would work but not look clean. You would also get some warpage along the seam. If you were thinking of cutting the sheet length ways to make your "boards" then you would still need to buy two sheets to cover the bed.
If you are happy with it though go for it and send in pics.

I put plywood in a '66 GMC wideside that had no wood at all. I wanted to sell the truck so didn't want to spend too much. I used 2 sheets of exterior grade plywood & seamed in the center. I used a few wood splits underneath to keep it together & used one OE metal strip to cover the screws & also help hold the center down. I painted it & it looked pretty good. Brian

Personally... GROSS
In about a year or so that plywood will start to warp and look really bad unless you live in Arizona. Gulf coast states with their high summer humidity are the worst places for plywood. If you are planning on keeping this truck, do yourself a favor and use real wood.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

gross? how about grossly functional?

I used ply in my 57's step bed, cuz it wasn't worth spending much money on and it needs to earn it's keep, and I live in the rain forest of the PNW - the plywood, painted top, bottom, and all edges, will last as long as boards, even when there's frequently standing water in the bed

mine is going on 5 years now and other than some spots worn thru the top marine enamel, is still fine - all depends what ya wnat the truck for, if it's a driver plywood works fine, if it's a show truck "restoration", well, plywood can still work

Bill

I have plywood in the bed of my 39. It fits perfectly between the wheel wells, but I think this was the last year a step side bed was that narrow.

Since I do live in Arizona, it has been in there for over 15 years. I'm just about ready to replace it and I'll probably do it in T1-11 with 8" grooves this time around.

No, this is no substitute for a real bed, but since I'm not quite ready for the ground off resto, this suits me fine while I'm still hauling spare parts in the back.

Now this is coming from a guy who painted his truck with a can of paint and a brush.. so take my thoughts on this subject for what they are.

I had very seriously considered using a 4x8 sheet of plywood for the bed in my '46 1/2 ton.. the plan was to use Marine grade plywood and then coat it top and bottom with that brush on bed liner stuff you get from the hardware store (similar to the Rhino Liner stuff)

I ended up using old barn wood to do the job only because I had the old barn wood laying around, and it was free. A 4x8 sheet of Marine grade plywood would have cost another.. I don't know.. maybe $40 or so.

The plywood floor coated with that black bed liner stuff might not look as classy as those high dollar oak beds with the nice shiney strips, but it would be just as functional, and you wouldn't have to worry about the wood when tossing tools, buckets, or gravel in the back.

A highly polished hardwood bed in an old pickup is really an eyecatcher!!! Pretty expensive and each is as unique as it's owner. "Hey, is that a raincloud? Get the cover and let's get her back to the barn!!! Quick now!!!!!"

Wood beds are great....plywood, okay if it works for you. How about using some readily available composite stuff (horrors) to build a durable bed that retains the spirit of the original but let's you snicker at rain storms. And you can toss in some "truck stuff" without having to fret over the show quality finish!

I used "Vernda" a product used for decks, available at Home Depot....1" thick, color impregnated, waterproof, wood grained, UV stabilized, and requiring a whole lot less upkeep than a show quality bed.

It may, or may not work for you, but it works for me! Got a couple pics in my "shoebox" album.
Just my $.02!

wow, how about OSB????

hahahahahahahahhahaha

I guess my philosophy has always been, "it's better to over-do-it than to have to do-it-over."
I agree all that fancy wood is quite expensive and I suppose if I were just using my truck for hauling etc. I would look for something less expensive. The T-111 siding would probably hold up longer. How about Hardy Planks?

I would bet that a very well finished piece of 4x8 oak plywood would be hard to distinguish from planks if done right. It would be relatively simple to use a router to even recess the bedstrips if you wanted to. The only issue would be the width in some vintages but I am sure a little creativity with some metal strips along the edge would hide that.

And if it is being used for "work" then I'd see nothing wrong with an exterior grade plywood being used.

Seems lots of people forget these trucks didn't come with all these exotic wood beds you see now.

Hardy planks would actually work pretty well. They are certainly not light, but they would last forever. Most builders hate it because they go through blades so fast on the cutting, but a bit of paint and a clear coat and you have a very useable bed.

Trex is another composite that might work as well. It's like 2x4's made out of recycled product. It's integral colored so scratching it up wouldn't be as big an issue.

There are certainly a lot of options.

My grandfather used exterior grade plywood in the back of the 58. To him it was a work truck, and he would have never thought of spending big bucks to make a pretty looking bed. he just wanted something that would be functional. It looked decent, certainly a whole lot better than the worn out pine boards underneath it. If you plan on using your truck for hauling, park it outside in the weather, and don't plan on taking it to shows, plywood should be fine. I do kinda' like the idea of the composite boards in terms of durability, but then your looking at more money than plywood once again.

Go to your local lumber yard and see if they have or can order a sheet of T111, it"s a type of house siding. You can get it in 5'x 10' and it will look like you have bed boards. A coat of stain and some poly urathane and it will look great and last

My .02 I seen fla54chevy3100 truck and it is great. the composit deck wood is strong and looks good. Dave does nice work. I would go with sp pine. select pine, cost more than #2 pine but no knots. coat with five coats poly after machine work. that's oem look. Gotta admit Dave can throw anything in his 54 and not hurt it. check it out.
Like the man said plywood would not last as long.If ya want real cheap MDF or Particle board.
If ya want real strong 1/4 diamond plate steel. As a matter of fact my 4 x 8 trailer I made has pt 3/4 plywood and the weather is thaken it's toll on that. starting to unglue. When ya think of it pine was used for years and lasted for 15 or 30 years before it started going bad. Maybe longer. Plywood works good inside burbs, sorta protected from weather.

jbennett
40 burb

I thank you all for the feedback! I should have stressed utility over aesthetics initially, my bad!

Last summer my inlaws put up a deck with that composite stuff and had some left over I was eyeballing for use as bed wood.

Looks like sawdust mixed with some kind of other component.

They left a few boards out in the rain with a board under them and they warped like hell.. I smacked one with a 15 lbs sledge just to see how tough the stuff was and it made a nasty dent that chipped away like particle board.

Kind of spooked me from trying to use the stuff as bed wood.

Now they just used it for the 'floor' of the deck.. and it's not real high traffic and covered so it won't see much sun or rain.

I'd be curious to see what a bed made of that stuff ends up looking like after four or five years of heavy abuse and 365 days a year exposure to the elements.

I just finished redoing all my oak planking in my 54 3100. I stripped all the varnish off. And restained it in a medium mahogany . Wow it looks great. Everyone seems to go the lighter route. I went darker. I then put 3 coats of spar varnish on and it shines Theres no way plywood would come out like this Its time consuming but i got the job done . Be prepared to spend about 2 to 5 days taking all the planks in and out there's about 75 carridge bolts and of course putiing it back in can be tricky with 3 coats of varnish it's a lot tighter going back in then out and some of the spots under the truck are tight. Put all the boards and screws in first before you tighten the nuts and make sure the truck is a good foot of the ground it sure helps Have Fun ... Peter

osb is called sh=t board where I live cant believe people put the stuff in there house when you can get plywood for a couple bucks more the stuff makes me sick i cant go near it i got poisoned in a house built from osb that turned to mold you know the black mold almost killed my kids to we live in a osb free house now i can smell osb from 50 feet away.

I hate wood beds in any form. I'm going steel in my 63. I got an 89 bed floor that's absolutely perfect that's going in. If I didn't have that, I would spend the dough on regular sheet metal,
Scott

A lot of specialty lumber yards have plywood in 5x5 and 5x10 sheets. Marine or aviation grade plywood will stand up just fine. I've had the same ratty old sheet of exterior grade plywood in my bed for 5 years and it hasn't rotted out, fallen apart, or done anything but get a bit slimy. Its protected by a glaze of motor oil, sap, scum, and huberis. It's about time to retire the truck to a life of dignity and paint it and put a real bed back in it.

I saw a plywood just last week. Didn't look at it closely, but I think it had routed chanels for the metal strips so it looked like planks.

A '53 GMC I ued to own had 1/8" diamond plate flooring in its bed,welded down the sides and ends,and welded underneath to all the ribs,and I liked that a lot. Strong,easy to clean,and made the ol' truck ride a lot better than its '53 Chevy sister. And it still had plenty of power,so I guess it must not have weighed as much as it looked like.
My '57 GMC has some plywood patches in its bed,and some sheet metal patches,and a couple of 2X8 patches,and a few places where there'd be patches if I had anything handy to patch with...it's rough on 'em when your hoist breaks and drops engines into the bed. My '62 one ton has mostly diamond plate decking,in a nice patchwork pattern,with various sized holes where the welding technician went temporarily blind. I see there is a little wood under the steel though. HEY-THERE'S the patches for the GMC!!!
Speed

Ok how about this. Instead of the traditional wood planks, how about 10 gauge steel strips powder coated to your favorite color or colors and bolted in with the traditional strips that could be also coated a different color. "mix and match"

I have been tossing around ideas for my bed as well. Like some of you,I considered using plywood too, only I was going to cover it with the black turf material. I also considered using the diamond plate. I'll probally wind up buying the pine boards that several suppliers sell. If anyone is interested, I have a used pine set with the steel strips. It was modified with a fuel door in the floor by the PO. I believe it will fit the 54-59 short bed models. I purchased it awhile back to use for my truck, a '50 3600. I was going to shorten the bed but have since decided to leave it as is. Will take $75 for it all.

I'm a purist, so when it is time to re-do my bed, I'll go old school.

But I've always dreamed of building a strip canoe. Think of the wild herringbone patterns or inlay you could do on a Bolt bed using strip canoe fabrication techniques!
Bill

That is a beautiful canoe. I don't think I would want to portage it very far. If I had a bed made out of that stuff I wouldn't take the truck out of the garage.

I was thinking of using pine boards and then coating them with bed liner.

Any one tried that?

Builder: If you do this, be sure to use something else besides the bedliner to seal the pine. We have tested many finishes and have an ongoing weathering test of ten finishes. http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finish_testing_ii.html They have been out in the Oklahoma weather 24/7 since summer 2005. The only finish system that has not failed is pine boards with four coats of POR15 followed by several coats of black exterior glossy enamel. It still looks about the same as the day we finished it. I think if you finished the pine that way then used the bedliner product to provide abrasion resistance, you would have a very durable bed floor.

Mar-Ktech

I've been wanting to get some nice wood for my truck, but I use it for hauling on weekends. Diamond plate is another option I've ben looking at.

But, for now, I'm using a 1/4 plywood sheet from the previous owner. I ended up strengthening this makeshift bed very quickly and cheaply by cutting 4 scraps of 2X4, drilling some holes and tying them down with quick ties. I cut one more scrap piece of wood for some diagonal support right in the area in front of the differential.

This setup works great for me. I hauled 90 pavers from my local hardware store and the plywood held up well.

Just another option for you all to consider.

I was thinking pine for my truck. That is "yellow pine" if it's affordable. If I remember correctly, that's how they came from the factory.

John

If you cut the wood yourself it is not that expensive. I got dried red oak from a saw mill in Wisconson for $125,pine would have been under $70, it was plained and cut to size. I use A table saw to cut the strip gruves and router to cut out the bottom of boards to hide the mounting bolts. do it yourself save money and have a hard wood bed.

I bought rough cut lumber from a lumber mill in Pittsburgh, Pa. We used Cherry and Purpleheart lumber which is much more expensive than Oak or Pine. I have $178 in wood.

Question?
Has anyone used fiberglass resin over Oak?
How did it turn out?

When I first got my 53 1/2 ton on the road, I welded two pieces of Angle Iron (from an old bed frame) to the inside of the bedsides. Then I got a 4X8 sheet of Marine Grade Plywood, cut some grooves in the right places for the bed strips with my circular saw. Spar Vanished it, dropped it in the bed with two 3/4 X 3/4 pieces of tubing on either side to take up the extra space, then bolted the strips all down (and to the cross members).
I ran it that way for several years until I took the truck apart for the recent rebuild. I set the bed off the truck in one piece with the wood still bolted in, that bed will likely end up on another truck I plan on building to drive.
Mongo

My 58 Apache has an old Pure oil sign in the bed. It's not been repainted so you can still see the graphics. It's pretty neat. To be honest I wouldn't butcher an expensive sign like this to do a bed but I got it that way and that's the way it's gonna stay. Lot's of possibilities out there with the old Coke, Pepsi and R/C Cola signs. Not to mention all of the old oil signs. It's something different to be sure. Bert

purtiest thing I have ever seen (other then a original wood bed) was diamond plate. Ooooooo purty

I bought a 66 chevy the other day were the previous owner had used plywood and spliced in the center and then used bolts with solid heads to keep it down and it didn't look bad. Also by the way of rust of the inside of the bed i am sure it hadn't been changed in quite a few years and was still holding up and had not warped any.

Can anyone email me a pic of there plywood bed project? I have wood in my bed (mostly) but can't afford to replace the wood just yet. And I'm missing a few corner boards. Since the body still needs to be worked on, I thought to cut and lay out plywood (painted) until the body is ready for new wood in a few years.

These projects never end do they.. my email is [email protected]

Thanks fellas. All good ideas.

The plywood in the bed of The Ox looks like it's been there for 25 years or so.. and under that is another piece... no original wood left... I've got some 5/8's plywood that i'm thinking about putting over the other two pieces... .