1953 Chevy 3100 Wood Bed Help

[chevy53&72restore]

folks,

looking for suggestions on quality kits at a reasonable price point for bed wood kits out there. I have checked LMC, Classic Industries, Classic Parts, Mar-K, Brothers, Jim Carter..... are there any others I am missing?

Is there a main supplier to all of these guys that I can go factory direct?

so far the only place to offer samples of wood and stainless steel is Mar-K. Does anyone have experience w any of these companies that can comment on quality? I have found prices vary wildly ($430 kit from Classic Parts to $685 kit from Classic Industries).

Thanks in advance.

Scott

[mr48chev]

One thing depends on the wood you want. The fancier the grade of wood the more expensive.

One option if you have access to a table saw or maybe a router table is to finish mill your own This link shows the boar widths for both the 9 board beds and the 8 board beds like yours. It also shows how to cut the grooves for the bed strips. That at lets you price the lumber you want locally an see how buying the boards and trimming them to size and shape stacks up against buying the ready done.
http://devestechnet.com/Home/Bedwood

Another thing is to check and see if maybe Mar-K is going to be at a local show or swap meet and you could pick the wood up from them there and save shipping.

The only complaints I have heard about Mar-K products is that a couple of guys whined because they still had to do finish work on the bed sides to make them "perfect" show quality pieces rather than just "great" pieces". Ones complaint was that the spot welds showed more than he liked.

[_Ogre]

bed strips need to be sourced from any truck parts vendor
stainless bolts can be bought for less than half price of the kits in boxes of 100 from boltdepot.com
bed wood from home depot or any lumber store, cuts are easy to do with any small table saw

or at least that's what ogre did


i chose to use trex plastic decking from home depot and cut the 'boards' in my shop

[GreasyLikeaBurger]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

bed strips need to be sourced from any truck parts vendor
stainless bolts can be bought for less than half price of the kits in boxes of 100 from boltdepot.com
bed wood from home depot or any lumber store, cuts are easy to do with any small table saw

or at least that's what ogre did


i chose to use trex plastic decking from home depot and cut the 'boards' in my shop

Always liked this idea, especially for a daily driver.

[Matt_50]

Trex plastic decking....

Can we see a couple more pics of this?

[joedoh]

cutting the J profile in the boards isnt completely necessary, I did it on the first few beds I did but on the last one I just used a rabbiting bit set just higher than the strip height (so loads could slide on the strips). I think the J profile is useful on pine or softer woods which have more movement in wet weather but for harder woods or treated boards I think just the rabbit is all you need.

at least thats what I tell myself.

mine are always custom widths depending on the tubs, so I just know there is 7/8 between each board and then using an overall width I am able to plug it into excel and figure different sizes based on how the outer boards end up.

IMG_0872_zpsdfzmdujv by Joe Doh, on Flickr

this one was real vintage 1 3/4 cedar I took from a 1946 flatbed! I wish I had more, the character of that silvered cedar was awesome.
IMG_4945 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

IMG_0297 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

IMG_7136 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

[Driver_WT]

Check out Ipe wood, it should last a long time

[_Ogre]

Ipe wood

ca-ching $$$

[Driver_WT]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

ca-ching $$$

I am thinking $250 to $300. You have to router the wood yourself. More in Canadian dollars

[68blackbird]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

bed strips need to be sourced from any truck parts vendor
stainless bolts can be bought for less than half price of the kits in boxes of 100 from boltdepot.com
bed wood from home depot or any lumber store, cuts are easy to do with any small table saw

or at least that's what ogre did


i chose to use trex plastic decking from home depot and cut the 'boards' in my shop

How much $$ do have in your bed work, looks good. Kel

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by Matt_50

Trex plastic decking....

Can we see a couple more pics of this?

lots of pics in my build

Originally Posted by 68blackbird

How much $$ do have in your bed work, looks good. Kel

current home depot price for trex 1x6x12 is $27, 5 pieces ($135) got me 9 pieces in the bed
cuts were done on my table saw