Bed wood sketch

[slepysal]

great tips thank you

[jayoldschool]

Very good tips. Here's mine:
- take bed off
- do the install with the bed standing up on the front panel
- don't waste your time doing body work on front panel or tubs, they are cheap to buy

I've done it both ways, and it is WAY quicker and easier with it standing up.

[jdl71]

Originally Posted by oem4me

I actually just finished re-doing the wood in my '62 C20, and could've used that info from GMC Pauls ahead of time. Looking at the dimensions stated there, they are good numbers. All of it.
I milled my own wood, totally from scratch by measuring factory boards from other trucks. That, and referencing Mar-K's info from their website, I got what I thought was exact info.
My bed now looks great, but it's a bit tight with not much room for wood growth with moisture changes. I'm a bit concerned it's going to behave badly if it can't move enough seasonally.
So, use the info from GMC Pauls, you'll be happy you did. I just wish I would've done that a month ago.

You think it’s too tight side to side or front back? I was doing the math after reading the other post about the dimensions being too narrow. The bed is roughly 72” wide and using Paul’s dimensions gives me 68.25” of wood. Using 10 boards that would give you room for a 7/16 gap between each (9 joints). Seems like a lot, of am I missing something?

[jayoldschool]

No. Look at my second pic without the strips installed. You see the gap. The strips cover the gap. The bolt goes through that gap ;-)

[oem4me]

Originally Posted by jdl71

You think it’s too tight side to side or front back? I was doing the math after reading the other post about the dimensions being too narrow. The bed is roughly 72” wide and using Paul’s dimensions gives me 68.25” of wood. Using 10 boards that would give you room for a 7/16 gap between each (9 joints). Seems like a lot, of am I missing something?

Mine is too tight side to side. The skid strips fit too snuggly in the grooves between boards. Ends are ok at about 1/8" gap each end. Wood does not move too much in length anyway. I believe the widths I came up with measuring factory examples were each 1/16" wider that what GMC Pauls calls out. That 1/16" per board would've given me a bit more room for movement.
What I did was remove and replace half of the boards at a time. I had no help, so lifting the bed off seemed impossible, or at least very difficult. So, after pulling one half of the wood out and painstakingly removing all the rusted nuts (several perimeter bolts had to be cut) I started at the side and worked inward toward the middle. It became obvious when I got near middle that I was crowding the bolts between boards a bit. At that point I should've stopped and ripped each board down a smidge, widened the grooves, and the repainted all of them. But I wanted them in and done, and just put them in. I may still take them out and do that someday, we'll see. It actually fits well and looks good now, but I know there is no stopping wood from expanding.

[jdl71]

Originally Posted by oem4me

Mine is too tight side to side. The skid strips fit too snuggly in the grooves between boards. Ends are ok at about 1/8" gap each end. Wood does not move too much in length anyway. I believe the widths I came up with measuring factory examples were each 1/16" wider that what GMC Pauls calls out. That 1/16" per board would've given me a bit more room for movement.
What I did was remove and replace half of the boards at a time. I had no help, so lifting the bed off seemed impossible, or at least very difficult. So, after pulling one half of the wood out and painstakingly removing all the rusted nuts (several perimeter bolts had to be cut) I started at the side and worked inward toward the middle. It became obvious when I got near middle that I was crowding the bolts between boards a bit. At that point I should've stopped and ripped each board down a smidge, widened the grooves, and the repainted all of them. But I wanted them in and done, and just put them in. I may still take them out and do that someday, we'll see. It actually fits well and looks good now, but I know there is no stopping wood from expanding.

That’s right you didn’t have the chart when you did yours. It looks great to me hopefully you can leave it as is.