The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Can boards be drilled without dry-fitting?

My brother is building the bed for our Fallen Hero's Dream Ride project. Problem is, he's in San Diego and the truck is in Missouri. Is there a way to accurately determine where the mounting holes are drilled without having the truck and boards together? Does Mar-K instructions provide this information?

Yes, Mar-K can provide a detailed instruction sheet. You should check out their website, under technical info.

Hi Dave,

Here is my ex-spurt (the drip under pressure kind) opinion. I milled my own wood out of yellow cedar, bought the stainless strips and bolt set from Mar-K, and marked the holes in place. The Mar-K instructions were fantastic and they were a great outfit to work with.

I would have been very uncomfortable drilling the holes without marking them in place. Here is the process I used for the install. The first step was to slide the edge boards under the angle strips to mark the bolt holes. The cross sills were attached next using measurements supplied by Mark-K. Middle boards get bolted through the gap left between the boards so no drilling here. And finally the bed to frame bolts and offset washer holes were traced from below removed and drilled. There were some measurements given here to use as a double check.

Thanks everyone for the kind words!
We do recommend always dry fitting parts before you make any modifications including drilling holes and painting.

Here are a few sets of instructions that may help you out:
http://www.mar-k.com/SPACING_BED_WOOD_BOARDS.pdf
http://www.mar-k.com/drilling_mounting_holes.html
http://www.mar-k.com/bedwooddimensions.pdf

Hope these help.