The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Original 54 pine bed color

Have an original 54 5 window deluxe that has been in the family since new. Restoring to original and want to know what was the original color of the pine wood bed. When I got the truck back in the 70's, the bed was painted black. Was that original?

Black was pretty much the standard color for the bedwood and also the strips. The angle strips were usually body color. The black used was not a high gloss or flat but instead more of a satin.

Thanks Bruce

The wood was not painted, they used a mixture of linseed oil and lamp black or stove black, I don't recall which.

When I replaced the bedwood on my '54, I followed the study MAR-K conducted and did the POR-15 and Behr paint method on southern yellow pine. My truck bed is exposed to the Florida elements every day 24/7 and I do not plan on installing a bed cover. Its been nearly a year and it looks like the day it was installed.

MAR-K is one of the links here or do a google search for MAR-K. Very insteresting study. I'm thankful for their contribution.

Good luck.

I can remember lookin for a new Chevy pickup in 66. The bed wood was black at that time,and every new truck I looked at already had cracked boards in the bed.Just from sitting outside in nice weather.I was told by other Chevy owners that if you soaked the bed wood with linseed oil they would not crack.Seems to me that should have been taken care of at the factory or dealer.Anyhow I got so tired of lookin at cracked bed boards that I bought a Ford,with a steel bed.

I remember mopping linseed oil on trailer floors during the 50's. My father told me the hotter the day the better.

The links to our bed wood finish information are as follows:
http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finish_testing_i.html
http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finish_testing_ii.html
thanks for mentioning us!

The results from your testing indicate that to duplicate an original looking finish, the Por15/Behr finish looks and holds up the best.
Since Mar-K is probably the foremost authority on truck beds I’m sure that the question or original finish has come up and been thoroughly researched. After all, someone at GM had to specify the material and finish process and someone had to order the material and someone had to supply it and apply it. so there has to be some record of what was used.

The question that I have been asking for a couple of years here and with the VCCA is, what were the original materials and method of manufacture that GM used on the bed wood? They used wood in all their truck beds large and small for more than half a century so I'm sure that they had the finishing process pretty much down pat. The original bed wood (Southern Yellow Pine) in my 1950, 3604 is still solid even though the surface grain is raised and cracked on all of the boards. Some of the black is still showing in the surface of the wood and strips even after 58 years.

I don't believe that pressure treatment was in use back in the 40’s and 50's and I've heard that the boards were treated with or soaked with creosote, as were telephone poles and fence posts. Were the boards and strips both painted with black enamel paint? Were they painted before or after they were assembled in the bed? And finally, was the enamel that GM used on the bed floor a gloss or semi-gloss enamel?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL