Bed wood is in..

[pat]

This was a pain to get done, but Im there.
A couple suggestions, if you put about 10 layers of varnish on like me, take some of the board thickness off in the rear corners and front corners of the outside boards. I had to fight them for a long time, then pull them out, file down the ends of the boards, then pound them back in.
For varnishing, make sure you are in a shop where thousands of bugs and dirt flying around cant ruin your perfect finish. And cheap brushes are just that, cheap brushes.

pics are a little dusty..

[Joe67]

That is beautiful. I can't wait until I'm at that stage on my project

[soonrfish]

beautiful. Im ready to do mine, but still waiting for the time.

how was the drilling of the holes? did you encounter any problems? any suggestions to those of us who will be doing this soon?

[glock35ipsc]

What was your installation process? I mean, did you preassemble anything off the truck then install the bed, or do it all on the truck? Everytime I search for info on how to put these thing together, I always get 50 different ways to do it.

[john]

If your bed is off now is the time to assemble it. Some of the guys have done it with bed on, but I cant imagine fighting the rear axle and X members when you can pull the bed in less than an hour. I bought the pre drilled wood kit which helped me quite a bit.
By the way nice job pat, looks good.

[pat]

Thanks guys

I put my wood in with the bed sitting on the frame. I started by putting in the outside boards first, then sliding in the stainless strips. I bolted the cross sills to the outside boards first. Then I worked my way toward the middle. I kept all the bolts finger tight at first and then checked to make sure the bed was square and tightened them all up. I put in my boards before I drilled them, so I had to by a flexible drill extension to make the holes.

[glock35ipsc]

Thanks Pat! It looks awesome! I don't want to hijack your thread with a bunch of questions, so I'm gonna send you a PM.

[Sequoyah]

Looks good! What kind of varnish did you use? How did you seal the ends of the boards?

[pat]

I used Man O' War Marine Spar Varnish, the semi-gloss one. I used the varnish on all sides of the boards, so I assume the varnish sealed it.

[BigMike]

That looks beautiful, great job. I eventually want to put a wood bed in place of my steal floor, and yours is the reason why - they look awesome!

Mike

[our64]

Just wondering . My wood is all done but a bit thicker than 3/4 inch. Where and why will this be a problem if all the boards are the same. Any other advice would be appreciated..tx

[ChevyDude]

Just freekin' beautiful dude!!!

[pat]

Thanks guys

Originally Posted by our64

Just wondering . My wood is all done but a bit thicker than 3/4 inch. Where and why will this be a problem if all the boards are the same. Any other advice would be appreciated..tx

The only place this should be a problem is the very outer boards where they fit between metal on the top and bottom. I think the rear outer corners and under the tubs (front and rear) mainly. You could just plane off some on the ends of those boards. Mine was too tight so I just took off some of the botom side of the boards.

[Gray Ghost]

Looks very nice Pat! I wish mine had a wood bed floor sometimes.

10 coats should last you a long time if you keep it out of the sun as much as you can. Even Spar Varnish degrades in UV's. I had 7 coats on a chair that sat outside and it only took 2 years to crack and peel.