The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Truck Bed Refinishing Options

When I bought this truck, the owner said it originally came from California. I believe him. He also said the wood in the bed of the truck is genuine California Redwood that may even date back to the 50s. I am doubting that claim, but wanted to ask what you all think of the photos below taken by the previous owner.

Im also looking at some refinishing options... i could determine if the wood in there is Redwood, then go with a redwood stain and seal. Of course i could buy all new wood.

What do yall think i should do? Thanks
Truck Bed Photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/union4487/sets/72157623336777492/

Looks good to me as is. Could be Oak. Just clear coat it if you don't mind doing it over every couple of years because of weathering. Mar-K offers advice on finishes too.

Who is Mar-K and how do i get in touch with them? Thanks

Looking at the water stains on the underside, it could indeed be Redwood - very similar to Western Red Cedar. Lots of natural oil to resist rot, but pretty soft wood - will mar easily. Not too big a job to pull the boards out, sand, and refinish. Many options available from simple oil to spar varnish to varathane type products. As DrewP mentioned, Mar-K did a wathering test on various finishes.

Great, so how do i know what type of wood is in there right now... short of tracking down a forester?

The wood had to have been treated with a sealer or it would have turned grey by now, even if it had been stained. I would pull a board out and do any sanding/testing on the bottom side. Take it to a good Porter Paint or maybe a Sherwin Williams store and they should be able to tell you what the wood is as well as help you with deciding what you want to do to refinish.

We do a lot of "deck restoration" work here...everything from redwood to treated lumber and I can tell you that you will NOT be able to just stain/seal it as is without either stripping the old sealer off or sanding it back down to bare wood. What I'm saying is that going over the old stuff won't hold up worth squat...you have to get the old stuff off.

Right, i totally agree that if the wood is to be re-done that a stripping/sanding would have to take place. Thats a great recommendation to go to Sherwin williams or something similar.

I would recommend a good planer for removing the old sealer. I took my bed boards to a cabinet shop. They took a very light anount of wood off the top, which made the wood stand out plus with minor sanding it took on a good sealer ( as recommended by MarK)
Sure saved me time and did not cost much...
Craig
46trucker

After planing,how did you compensate for the metal strip grooves?

the metal strips are higher than the wood to start with. You can set a planer to just take off the finsh if you wanted to. So not much wood would have been taken off, unless a board was warped then it would have trued it up.

57Blevins is correct..On mine the grooves were still very much in tack,,,I did not have to rework the grooves. But if I did it would be with a router and again setting the setting just low enough to get the right depth...
Craig
46trucker

46trucker is right on about getting a cabinet shop to plane the wood. I took my wood, after 8 years to the cabinet maker who did my cabinets when I built houses. I measure the thickness before he planed it and and afterwards. DANG, you could hardly tell he had taken in off but yet the old finish was gone and the wood looked new.... the best part is he wouldn't take a dime from me for his 20 minutes of work.

Just make sure they don't get happy and cut waaaay to deep!!

I just ordered my bed from Mar-K; it should be here next week sometime. I choose oak as it seemed to me to be the most durable. I would prefer either teak or cypress but they didn't offer them. I would buy the wood and do it myself but my shop has no wood working equipment or tools. Besides if I tried to cut the wood myself it would not pass muster.

could you get a close up pic of your bed wood?
from your photo I'm 99.9% sure it is not Oak...but i would need a better pic to know what it is.
Tim

Really doesn't have the appearance of oak. Now my 2 cents on restoration: unless you are really worried about the underside that appears to have some water marks, I'd go with a light professional planing--especially if it's redwood which is more of a soft wood--stripper might soak in and affect the coloration when finished.

The bed wood on my own truck was used oak bed wood--finish was stained, chipped, bubbling, etc. It came from a '55 that a guy was pro-streeting so was tubbing the bed. I stripped it with paint/varnish stripper, cleaned it up with painter's alcohol, sanded it, spar varnished (3 coats) the top, sides, and bottom, then used ultrafine steel wool and wax to dull down the gloss (it is so smooth it almost looks fake). That was 7+ years ago and it still looks great--and I drive my truck.

Not sure by the photos but by the underside water marks it may be stained??. There is a book, mine is dated 1969 called 'what wood is that' with actual wood samples by Herbert L. Edlin with actual wood specimens. I scanned the wood samples maybe this will help.? If you click on the photos after the initial click on the thumbnails, they will enlarge. Grain patters may help with ID.
http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n142/DCINSC/wood/

Most of the gunk is just down in between the wood grain.

I would powerwash it, sand any places needed with a block sander, then reseal the wood. I like using marine varnish for durability outside. Look for one that is UV resistant. If you keep this truck inside you may want to use a penetrating oil. Tung oil is an example. This will give you the grain look.

Or you can go through the process of taking all the boards out and doing the same thing.

Neither you or this wood will last forever. Enjoy the truck as long as you own it.

I'm surprised no one has suggested using Hardiplank. LOL

BigChevy, I think they did.... a while back. I'll bet a serch will turn up an hour of reading!! A fellow here did his one ton with it but I can't remember the "con's" of it..... perhaps fading?????

I did mine with the Trex Deck Material.