The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop wooden bed rails

i did a search because i know there has been a discussion of this before, no luck. i want to make some but should i use oak or pine? they will be stained. if you do a good staining job would the pine hold up? would white pine or yellow pine be a better choice.

If you must use pine a (soft wood) use yellow. However oak (a hard wood) will hold up much longer. I am considering using teak.

Yellow pine is is entirely different from white pine. It's as hard as oak and it's used for stair treads and "hardwood" flooring. That's why it was chosen for the floor of a truck bed.

Durability isn't the issue here, the grain and finished appearance is.

Also, stain only colors the wood. It doesn't enhance durability. I think you're confusing stain with wood preservatives.

I'll be making bed rails for my '48 half-ton over the winter. I'm using oak, like I did for the bed.

When I first got my 54 3100 in June of 76, my Dad built me some bed rails out of white pine, which he stained and coated with a good polyurethane (I think that's what it was). My truck was outside all the time and the bedrails lasted about 15 years. Whatever you choose to make them out of, just coat it with something durable.
Samantha

If you can get Southern yellow pine, I would recommend it. This is what was used as OE. Yellow pine is very strong, and it doesn't crack in weather like oak. Until recently, SYP was the preferred framing wood in Texas. It is rather cost prohibitive now and it is not nail gun friendly.

I'm still sticking with my Teak. A beautiful grain and loves the rain, poetically speaking...

IPE Pronounced "eepay" looks really good,kinda like mahog. or teak. And will probably outlast the truck. You hafta pre- drill all the holes and use stainless fasteners. Seal it with some kind of sealer or oil and youre good to go.

How about the wood the Mexicans call "Iron wood"? We vacation down there each summer and occasionally we have bought woodcarvings from the locals. They use Iron wood and it truly seems to be indestructible and has a beautiful grain as well. A while back someone said that wood was from a tree that also grows in the States under a different name.

Ipe is not very dimensionally stable. It'll move around enough with seasonal moisture changes that whatever you put on it will fall off. Real varnish will stay on a little longer as it tends to be more flexible than polyurethanes, but the oils in it will tend to repel the coatings. Teak is very stable, but again, the natural oils tend to make it difficult for the varnish to adhere. But, a "spit" coat of varnish will help, thinning the varnish down somewhat severely with naphtha. Like 30% for the first coat. Up here in the great white north, we use Douglas Fir for this sort of thing. In the states you call it "Oregon pine" I think. The flat deck on my truck is made out of it, and it lasts just fine, even when loaded with a forklift or front end loader. Just my two cents. Use what you find "prettiest". Anything will last, but one does like things to look nice while sitting in the drive way. And unless you are doing alot of hauling, that's the point, to look good.
Christopher.

appatone is a very strong and pretty wood iron wood ) they use it in flat bed trailer's for its strength and lasting ability ,only problem is the cost and size availability.i bought some from fruehauff year's ago to put in my flat bed and it was very pretty ,just put some Thompson's on it .it was ship lap i think 1 1/2 x6 .it was a very pretty dark red color .

In Mexico the wood carvers after finishing their carving will rub the wood down with brown shoe wax. That really gives the wood a bright and deep finish. Don't know how that would last in the weather, probably not long.

The wood in My 52 bed is OE yellow pine...and it is the same
wood the factory used when they manufactured it...it lasted 56 years and still looks great..I am adding side boards too, but I got
some oak FREE, so that's what I will use...Bill B

For those shooting for originality it's good it was yellow pine back then than white pine. I wonder if GM today would use yellow pine instead of something a few bucks cheaper. They do make a better car now but looking at the quality of the material much of it has gone south.

For a daily driver the southern yellow pine would be my choice..for a in the garage weekender ya cant beat the look of oak or hickory ..then again with todays technolegy on finishes maybe Red Oak can stand up to the elements without going black on ya....
Tim

I like the Idea of Hickory for the bed wood. I'd like to hear from a woodworker, how would that hold up to the elements?
I've been looking for a Southern Yellow Pine source for a couple of years now and just haven't been able to find one locally here in the Chicago suburbs. When buying wood I would rather see it before I buy it. I'd hate to order the bed wood and find its not clear or that the ends are cracked or the grain is sawn wrong and then have to go through the hassle of sending it back.
I've been looking at Mar-K's kits for quite some time now and I've heard nothing but good reports about their products from people that have used them. I may have missed it, but I haven't seen where they say "Clear Southern Yellow Pine" for their pine kits.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,
I wil be doin my bed floor in Hickory this winter will shoot ya off some pics ..and an update after next summers abuse.
Tim

I may be wrong but I think I remember where Mar-K will use your choice of wood for the bed. It may cost extra however and may have to be something local or you might be able to ship it to their wood shop. Then again I may have just dreamed all this!

We used cypress years ago (SE TX) for everything that was going to get wet or stay outside. I like the color and grain of it.

Cypress is a very different wood. If it comes from a tree that is at least 70 years old the wood will never rot or succumb to disease or insects.

MAR-K offers 2 kinds of wood:
red oak or yellow pine.
For information on how to finish your bed wood go to this link:
http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finishing.html
Hope this helps!