[Chevystep]

Ipe...or Brazilian Walnut...Super hard, weathers to a grey if you don’t oil it. Has to be drilled when used as a deck material to put fasteners in it. Stuff is so hard and dense it don’t float. Found it in 3.5, 5.5 and 7.25 widths and it works in the original mounting holes, you do have to trim the 3.5 down a bit to tuck it under the two side strips so the holes show up. Adds a little more weight, but that should just give a better ride for our coil spring trucks. Buying the boards and routing the grooves for the strips myself was cheaper than all pre drilled oak kits I could find. And I hid the bed/frame bolts by inserting the bolts heads into the board’s underside with a forstner bit. Stacked head dado cutter on table saw, two passes for the strip insets...picts of a test board...