73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks > Projects Posts (NOT VEHICLES)

stepside bedwood restoration

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travh123:
hi all, its been a while since ive posted/had time to work on my truck, but recently had some time to spend in the shop. one area of my truck i have always not liked is the rotten old wood in the bed so i decided it was going to get some attention. i decided to use yellow cedar because i had access to it for cheap. the process for this project was relatively straight forward. the only thing i had trouble with was finding the dimensions for the wood. i just ended up going of the old nasty wood and it worked out alright.
heres what it looked like when i started


getting all the bolts and strips out was easy. had to drill some of the stubborn ones out but no big deal. i kept the bed on the truck as long as i could so i could still hop in the box if i needed.


once i had everything but the corner strips and the outer planks, i put the box on the lift.


then it was a matter of finding the spot welds on the corner strips. one pass with the wire wheel made them easy to see.


i wasnt exactly sure how to go about removing these without digging into the box. a 1/4 drill bit and some wedges worked alright. as i drilled in you could see when you were going through the strip into the box metal. and as i went along i put a wedge in between the strips and the box metal to put a bit of pressure on the weld. this way whe you were through the weld it would pop away from the box metal.




so after i drilled all the spot welds i was left with a bunch of half holes in the box. and being paranoid of rust getting through i filled them in.





as you can tell from the last picture the welds were kind of randomly spaced. so thats why i didnt just drill the welds right through. i knew i wanted to have nice evenly spaced welds. i decided every 3 inches would be enough.

so this is how i set up the strips to be welded, with a spare side plank i made. i just made sure it was tight at both ends, with all the holes lined up. tacked both ends, then took a measurement from the to of the box to the top of the strip abd made sure the middle was the same measurement and clamped it. then welded the rest of the holes. when i was welding through the holes i drilled in the box i started in the centre and worked my way to the outside in circular swirls.



with the strips welded in now i had to decide what i wanted to do as far as paint. i dont have a good enough compressor or a paint booth so box liner was really my only choice. not what i really wanted to do but it was better than what it looked like before and it would last.



i also box lined the inside of the fender area


heres what it looked like after 2 coats. i ended up doing 3 coats though.


i got the strips and all the hardware from  . and they ended up shorting me 3 of the bigger outside bolts for the end and corner strips. which is a pita because shipping takes forever to get up here.


so as far as the wood goes, i started with some rough milled cedar. i just took all my measurements off the old wood. and literally just clamped the boards with holes drilled in them to my boards and used the old boards as a template. i just used a dado blade to create the grooves for the strips to sit in the turned the boards on edge and trimmed the outside lipmso the strips would be countersunk so to speak. luckily my brother in law has a cabinet making business so i had access to his shop.





and then i just put 3 coats of clear on the wood, buffing after each coat. and i drilled all my holes before sealing the wood so there would be no bare wood






so after 3 days of wood painting it was time for assembly. and it went a lot smoother than i thought. everything fit pretty well, there was a little prying in some spots but nothing major.

and this is how it turned out. i still dont have it fully together but youll get the idea.

roundhouse:
Nice work.
We just replaced  ours using cedar
We didn't have to remove the side welded strips though



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hatzie:
Pilot point drill bits make fair spot weld cutters.
Nice work on the replacement.

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impco lpg:
nice work looks good, i gave up the wood on mine after it rotted near the cab area. and did it with chequer plate 5mm on the base 2mm on sides

travh123:
Ya I debated, and still haven't decided if I am going to put checker on the sides. But yours looks pretty clean and I might give it a go.

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