Pick-up bed

[Steve Bietau]

I am replacing the wood floor in the bed of a 1970's Chevy Pick-up. Any suggestions for the best type of wood and finish to withstand weather? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Steve

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

usually white oak

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd use a hardwood intended for making decks -- for instance ipe. Or if you're a cost-is-no-object person, teak.

I wouldn't put any finish on the wood at all. The bed of a truck is going to get scratched and dinged. If you put a varnish on the wood, the scratches will go through the varnish. The scratched wood will turn silverish, while the varnished wood around it will stay bright. That is, the scratches will become obvious. If instead you leave the bed unfinished, the inevitable scratches will not stand out. The whole bed will go silver together.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Steve,

I am going to be doing mine in about a year. I have a 1967 stepside that needs a new floor. The factory replacement is now red oak, but has been reproduced in both red and white oak, pine and other woods over the years. The best would be Ipe for wear and tear but getting 1x8's is virtually impossible.

I want to do some inlays, but mine will primarily be white oak. There's a ton of old barns that were built with white oak and have stood for over 100 years. It's much more resilient than red oak. That said, there's a ton of them out there with red oak and they look fantastic.

For finish you will need at least Spar Urethane or better and it has to have UV protection. The last kit I built for a friend was a Model A bed in white oak with 7 coats of Minwax Spar Urethane Varnish after the BLO coat.

Here's a pic of that kit finished...

http://www.hannawoodworks.com/layout101.jpg

PS....you'll want to finish the wood for sure. If you need to haul there are several rubber floor mats you can buy to protect the wood and the rails.

[Craig Hemsath]

Could you put a nice coat of some type of epoxy on top for extra protection?