73 woodbed help
 

Hi there. I recently picked up a 73 c20 with the optional wood bed. My wood needs redoing and my cross braces or what ever they are actually called are rusted too bad to clean up. Since this is the only 73 up one ive seen that isnt step side im concerned i wont be able to find replacement parts. My question is how different would it be from parts used on the 60-72 long beds with wood floor?

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

I ran into the same issues with rusty cross sills when restoring the wood floor in Dad's '77 GMC.

With the exception of the rear cross sill (back by the tailgate), the 67-72 cross sills can be used as suitable replacements. The plank widths are different so the hole spacing in the cross sills is different. But when I contacted Mar-K, they were able to supply some 67-72 style cross sills without any holes drilled in them. So (using an old one as a template), I was able to drill them out to the 73-80 hole spacing.

For the rear cross sill (and many of the special flange pieces around the perimeter of the floor), we had a local metal fabrication shop make replacements using the old rusty pieces as templates. But I think it would be possible to purchase a 73-87 rear cross sill that's meant for the more common steel floor and modify it to work with the wood floor. That would basically involve cutting out a section across the leading edge, flipping it over, and re-welding it back in to create the recessed notch that the ends of the planks sit down into.

The metal strips that go between the boards are available through Mar-K with the holes pre-punched for the 73-80 wood fleetside beds.

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

Thank you. Would it be possible for you to post pictures of the 77s wood floor?

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

LMC sells the kit you can buy as many of the cross rails as you want as well as the wood hold downs. What I did was I bought only two of the cross sills because I was able to weld in patches on the other cross rails. and I bought the cheap unpainted wood spacers. I was planning on bedlining the inside of the bed and I rhinolined the spacers.. I made my own wood and used galvanized carriage bolts to hold things together also coated the top of the carriage bolts with rhinoliner this is what I cam out with

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

That turned out really good. Similar to how i envision mine looking someday. Yours is a short bed stepside tho. Easy enough to find parts for, mine is a long bed fleetside, alittle more tricky to find parts for

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

I had some pics in this old thread but they're no longer viewable thanks to a certain photo hosting site :waah: --> http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=376467

Anyway, here are a few of those pics ... before, during, and after:

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

And a couple more during & after more pics:

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

Wow that turned out beautiful. Was this the piece you had to have a shop reproduce? Pretty sure mines savable. I ment the pieces that go between the planks, most of mine cant be saved

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

Thanks! Yes, that rear cross sill by the tailgate is one of the pieces we had to have reproduced by the local metal shop. We also had to have them remake many of the wide flange pieces that go around the perimeter of the bed floor (where the wood meets up with the bedsides & inner fenders).

We had to replace those metal strips that go between the planks too. Fortunately, Mar-K does offer those with the holes all pre-punched to fit the 73-80 long fleetside applications.

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

the longbed pieces are available at LMC
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cc/full.aspx?Page=35

Re: 73 woodbed help
 

Long bed stepside yes, mines fleetside tho you might be on to something, im sure alot of those parts could work, thanks for making that an option as i have a lmc order in my future