wood bed finishing question

[franko72]

The wood in the bed of my truck still has some original blue paint on it and is in good cond. It must of have had a camper top on it most of its life. Anyone ever sanded the wood down and refinished without removing any wood or metal strips.It looks like Oak wood. I think I could take a belt sander and maybe a vibrator sander to get the wood prepped.What would be good for getting the old paint off the metal strips without hurting the wood planks.Maybe a wire wheel and a steady hand?I would probably want to repaint the metal strips and stain and seal the wood.I was looking at it today and it seemed that it would be hard to get the space between the edge of the board and where the metal meets clean. Need trade secrets.

[Sweet72]

Keep the belt sander away from that nice orig wood bed, you may destroy it. Belt sanders are too agressive. We need some pics if you can provide them please so we can evaluate. If the wood is in as good a condition as you say, you should clean it as gently as possible and seal it with boiled linseed oil. My 2 cents

[franko72]

go to my post and click on my home page .A pic will show up of the bed.I guess my thoughts were if you had a flat piece of painted wood, what would be the best way to remove the paint.I didnt mean a 40 grit gouge into the wood with a belt sander.just need some direction how to.

[stllookn]

Frank, WOW! That is such a highly optioned original truck that I would really try to keep it original. I would take that bed apart, sand and paint the wood just like the original. You might get by with using a vibrating sander on it but do not use a wire brush since it will take the soft part of the grain down faster than the hard part of grain and ruin the wood. KEEP that one STOCK...just my 0.02!

[longhorn71]

Frank that is one sweet ride i wished i owned The wood the chey used in the box was Hard yellow pine from the factory.Chevy had not used oak since the late 30s for the box floors in pickups.Just a little info that is not well known!!

[shortymac83]

if you don't want to pull it apart, I'd just take some sandpaper and lots of elbow grease. the bedstrips make lots of ridges that will be hard to get into, and if you use a power sander, you might screw up the wood, or leave flat spots on the bed strips.

[franko72]

Thanks for the tips

[Sweet72]

http://www.woodzone.com/articles/scrapers/
Check the above link, cabinet scrapers (not paint scrapers) don't distress wood like sanders and really clean it up fast if you know how to use them...
I'd use the cabinet scraper to remove the loose paint and wood and don't worry about getting it down to perfectly clean wood, then as I stated before, lay on a heavy coat of boiled linseed oil with a brush and let the wood soak it up in the warm sun for a few hours, then wipe it down with a lint free rag. For the next two or three days apply a light coat and wipe down with a soft lint free cloth, allowing it to dry for 24 hrs between each coat. As for the metal strips you should remove and sandblast then have powder coated with a matching blue.

[classicchev]

If you are very careful, use a paint stripper,. I personally would remove all the wood, then use a stripper, then use a belt sander or orbital sander. Just remember the more aggressive the paper the larger the scratches will be in the wood. I would not go below 60, then 120, then finish with 150-180. After your done with the belt, bring out the paper, use 180 with a block and hand sand until you are satisfied with your boards.
What I would do and probably the easiest way is to run them through a panel sander, but not everyone has one of those in their garage.

Good luck, Darren