The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Make any sense to plane old wood bed?

Can I skim the planks just for a driver or would even a skim take too much off? Off course I would seal them. There is no moisture in Arizona except on my forehead. Could I flip each one over and rabbit and plane?

a planer on very dry old wood might splinter any area of odd grain, and rabbeting the back would leave you with that outside edge cracking off when you cinch down the skids .... if you have a real good planer with precise thickness control and real sharp blades it might work, but I'd be inclined to use the widest belt sander available

Bill

Is making the wood thinner, sitting down lower, hurt? I guess the idea is that the cargo slides on the strips anyway. belt sander sound good. Probably take off about 3/32-1/8. Got a SB Fleet 1963 today Bill. Neat truck with the old hangd down air and york compressor. V8 4sp. I think it may be a custom cab. Had full strips, double style. Is that a Custom cab? All the chrome is gone. I will check the cab for "b" pillar holes.

As a professional woodworker, whenever resurfacing used wood panels we would always use a machine called a THICKNESS SANDER.
Works the same as a thickness planner, but instead of knives it has sandpaper rollers, they skim exactly what it is set at. No tears in the wood and perfectly smooth and uniform thickness to every board & ready to refinish. A belt sander on the other hand will create dips and waves in the wood. If you go to a cabinet company and rent time on a thickness sander you will have exactly what you want. Just my 2 cents. Hope this helps.

Thanks both, I've now gotten two messages from "above".

...I took my 10 year old oak wood to the cabinet maker i used when I built houses and he skimmed it. He did it so well that when I measured it there seemed to be virtually no diffence in thickness. One or two of the boards showed a couple "low" spots but rather than plan it more I hit those with my belt sander. He did a super job on them. I guess it really depends on what you start with as to how it may come out.

The sandpaper rollers vickcraft mentioned sounds like a real good idea.

good info, thanks

Definitely a thickness planner is the way to go. I planned my boards that came with the 53 with the planner I have in my shop. But my wood was in very good shape. Had we not made the change to purpleheart and cherry I would still be using the pine boards that came with the truck when we bought it. A thickness sander would work even better. I agree a hand held belt sander would leave some high and low spots even if you are an expert at using it.