The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop '46 1.5T flatbed question

I am rebuilding the bed on my '46 and have reached the point mounting the new bed frame on the hoist rails. No problems anticipated through this process. My question comes in the next step, After the bed frame is secured to the hoist rails, the planking on the bed will be installed, but how are the planks held to the frame crossmembers? As all of the deck boards were missing from the bed when I bought the truck, and there were no holes, etc left as evidence on the frame to indicate the mounting procedure, I am puzzled a bit on how to proceed. This is not a factory bed, but a farmer retrofit with a hoist. As an additional query, anyone know the width of the factory flatbed? Thanks!

Flatbeds of this era are usually 7 1/2 foot wide to 8 foot wide. our old grain trucks are bolted in with carriage bolts

What material are your crossmembers made of? I have seen both wood and metal. My Chevy factory sales literature shows metal crossmembers. If metal, then carriage bolts would be appropriate. If wood, then you could use carriage bolts, nails or deck screws. My Diamond T and Chevy COE beds are both the same make (LoadKing)and have wood crossmembers. The original bed planks on my Diamond T are held with nails. When I restored the Chevy COE, I went modern and used ceramic coated deck screws with torx head. I was not confident with my hammering skills as the crossmembers are made of popular, so I abandoned the stock look. Both beds are 8 ft. wide.

Kent

Thanks for reply. My bed is entirely wood except for a 6 inch wide plate around the outside edge. I think my approach will be to install 3 angle iron crossmembers to the appropriate wood crossmember and then use the plated screws you mentioned to secure the planks from the underside of the deck. My bed is 8'by 10', but I think I will go ahead and reduce the width after it is mounted on the truck. I think it can be done fairly easily at this point before I plank it.

Thanks Clint, I'm thinking I will reduce the width to something like 7'4"; think it will look better that way rather than extending 6 inches past the tire edge. I could tell from photos that factory beds were probably not 8'.