The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Idea's for wood bed on big bolt

My new '51 gmc big bolt came with a very old, rotting wood bed. The bed is 14 foot long and is very solid with the exception of the old wood. I want to build it back to near as origingal as I can and to do so it looks like I will need 11 continious boards 7.5 x 14' by whatever thicknesss I decide to go with. I could always go with pressure treated pine from a lumber yard but I would rather go with something like oak or cedar. Any recommendations from anyone experienced out there ? Does anyone know of any pictures posted up of a big bolt with a nice wood bed on it?

Here's a pic of the bed of the truck

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii547/bigredchevy/photo-20.jpg

Thanks, Troy

Stay away from the pressure treated wood as it will split/crack/check before you know it. Cedar won't rot,but is very soft, not sure if you'll be hauling anything,guess you could put plywood under what your hauling. Oak will be expensive, though very tough. My 2 cents.

Thanks for the advice, alltruck. I will see where to go from here, just not sure where though

Troy

Get some Alabama rural saw mill guy to cut some Alabama oak to size and thickness. Hard to hold 14' flat without a lot of bolts. You can use shorter. Just widen one of the cross members to be able to handle two sets of bolts of the butted boards. However if you do that you should stagger the butts (pardon the expression), so that means widening more crossmembers. You can also plane some of what you have on that truck maybe.

Great advice Bartamos. If i can butt some together that may help tremendously... Plus i never thought of planning either I will get going on it and let you know.

Thanks !

Good deal. Should be a nice hauler when you are done.

Have you looked at/into the deck wood from rail cars, shipping containers or hauling trailers? I have heard that when they restore the decking, there is good in the old decking.

Thanks Hambone for that idea.... no I have not but it makes sense. I will look into it...

Let you know

Troy

Southern yellow pine would be a good choice, though soft and would show dings a lot. Cedar would be similar. White oak would be a good choice, as Hambone said. There is a grade of Oak that is for trailers, this is the material we used in our Model A 8 years ago-still looks great! The cost, from the mill where our cabinet shop gets material, would be about $300 for 5/4 white oak 16' long. Most all woods are available 8, 10, 12 and 16' lengths. As far as thickness goes, 4/4(four quarter) is 1" thick in the rough and will plane down or clean up at 3/4" thick. 5/4 will cleanup at 1", 6/4 will clean up at 1-1/4, and 8/4 will clean up at 1-3/4". There are different grades of wood as well; for the most part they are as follows:
F&B - face and better, best quality - no knots
1 Common - few knots, tight, should not fall out of the board.
2 common - more knots, some maybe loose and fall out of the board
trail floor - tight knots, other defects throughout the board
Any wood you use you'll have to put a finish on it or it will check (split),cup, and turn grey/silver .
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions.

Great information provided here, David. I really appreciate it and will use this going forward. I will try and let you know as I progress along

Thanks again, Troy

I'm using cypress in my 63 C-10, not the original yellow pine, but close. Not finished yet, but may try and post photo's when done.

I will look forward to seeing them