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

I just finished making my bed floor boards and need to know how much gap needs to be left at the ends for expansion.
I used pine and cut them to exact length. No gap but not tight. I'm thinking I should trim them a little more to allow for swelling. How much?

Richard

mar-k says cut 1/8" shorter to leave 1/16" gap at the ends. http://www.mar-k.com/bedwooddimensions.pdf

Thanks for the reply.
I was using their instructions for all the dimensions but sure missed that. I knew it should be there but couldn't find it.
Richard

Where can you find plans for the bed boards? 52 5 window. Thanks

bed wood info .... don't think there's any windows in'em tho

Bill

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I'm working on the same project right now. Before I started cutting any boards, I spent some time laying out the dimensions in AutoCAD. First thing I found was the gmcpauls dimensions are grossly inaccurate for a 1950 Chevy truck. Maybe those are the dimensions for a GMC but don't use those for a Chevy. Mar-K have good dimensions.

My question has to do with the outer most boards. Do those boards slide under the angle strip and stop at the bolts or do the boards go all the way under the angle strip to the bedside and the bolts bolt through the boards? Obviously that will make a 1" difference in those two boards.

If anyone needs specific dimensions for the board widths, let me know. I can send a section with dimensions (but verify dimensions on your truck before cutting anything).

The outer boards go to the outside of the bed sides. When installed there should be a 1/8 gap between the board and bed side. 3/8 holes are drilled through the boards for the angle strip bolts. Everything has to be left with clearances to allow for shrinking and swelling.

What did you end up with for board widths.
I just finished making boards for a '50 3/4 ton box and I started with the spacing between the bolt holes in the cross sills and then used the dimensions for the grooves and gaps from Mar-K's web site and they fit real nice.

Right now I am ready to drill the holes for the mounting bolts and need to know which cross sills they lacated in.
I think it is the front and second one and the rear one and the one next forward from it. That leaves the center one without. Is that right.
I don't have the truck where I can look at it and the bed was in pieces when I started.
Thanks Richard

right here

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/bed/rebuild_bed.html

and yes you should cut them a little more @ the front to allow for future wet conditions and they age
seal them well at the ends
&/or
http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view&current=2650080-R2-040-18A.jpg

Dimensions: I just made a new album on my webshots page and uploaded the dimensions I came up with. The lower dimensions are from gmcpauls and the upper are from Mar-K. I cut most of the pieces yesterday with only one SNAFU. I'll have to recut one board because my router bit moved on me during cutting. Oops. Obviously the dimensions on the outer board will be about an inch wider than shown from the above conversation.

Once I do some sanding, I'll start staining and upload some more pictures.

RedGreen
That is a nice dwawing you did. I just had a couple of pages of scratches but that was the easy way for me.
We are real close on board widths. My bolt spacing starting from the edge 4 11/16 - 5 7/16 - 5 3/4 - 5 3/4 - 6 3/4 and repeat to the other side. For board width I ended up with 4 5/16 (goes to the outside edge on one side) 4 15/16 - 5 1/4 - 5 1/4 - 6 1/4 an repeat. This leaves 1/2 betweeen boards an 1/8 at each side for a total width of 50"
The width of the face that shows depends on the width of the strips used. Looking forard to seeing a finished pic.
Mine are just painted black and I am assembling it and will take it all back apart later to paint the box.
Have fun.

Thanks. I work with AutoCAD daily so it comes easier to me than drawing by hand now. I needed to do something to get all the numbers running through my head worked out. On my drawing, the numbers below the board are bolt hole centers and the number on top of the board is overall board width.

I just did a test fit and had to do a little trimming but overall I'm really happy with the fit. Check out the new pictures to see what it would look like if I were leaving the boards natural. But what fun would that be?!

That looks real nice.
I see you are doing this with the bed installed. That looks like fun. Mine is setting on two saw horses and still quite unhandy I thought.
One trick I found is I have a large magnet from a speaker that I lay on top of a bolt head and it will hold the washers on the bolt while I get the nut started. Also holds the bolt in place which is a grewat help as I am doing this alone.

You are right on the board measurements. The dimensions I posted are also for the bolt spacing and the board width. I also figured out the face width of each board and was thinking about that when I posted.
I went back and edited that post so it wouldn't get anyone fouled up.

Yeah. Due to lack of garage space, the bed was installed when the parts came back from the painter about 1-1/2 years ago. I installed a piece of plywood to hold the rear bolts until I got to the bedwood. Next thing you know, a year and a half goes by.

That's a great tip with the magnet. I'll have to give that a try as I'm doing it alone also. Having the bed on the truck will make it a little more challenging, and having the bedwood in place will make getting under the truck a little more challenging also. It's been easy to slide under there from the back up until now.

Keep me posted on how yours comes out and I'll keep posting pictures as I progress this week.

RedGreen,

Looked at your photo album and I like the warm brown color you went with. What is the name of the stain you used?? Brand??

I'm assuming you're going over it with a clear polyurethane or something similar.

Spot

I just added a couple more pictures from the last few days.

The stain I used was Cabot Brown Mahogany with a few coats of Minwax Helmsman on top of it with a little sanding with 320 grit paper in between. It started with the 220 grit as recommended but found it took off too much of the previous layer.

BTW, 50Deluxe, the magnet trick was a life-saver, or at least a paitence-saver. It came in quite handy while trying to thread all those bolts and nuts.

Try that magnet trick with stainless-steel bolts/nuts/washers.

With SS hardware, I've masking-taped the nuts/washers to the socket (and masking-taped over the top of the bolt-head to the bed).

(Have you ever gone back and reread your own posts? Where did I learn to type?! Or proofread for that matter?!)

I had one bolt that was too long. It hit the frame rail, so I bought a shorter bolt at the hardware store. Evidently, I was in the SS bin because the magnet did not help at all on that one.