Good Wood
 

Well the first big(sorta) project for my newly acquired 71 C20 will be to replace the orig 50 year old wood ..After removing a rotten 4x8 sheet of plywood with some plastic stuck to it (held in with dry wall screws) from the bed I got a good look at how the orig wood was...Not so good but i knew that going in..2 and half hours and 3 sawzall blades later..after cutting every bolt off due to rust...I now have a naked bed...I all ready have a stack of red oak that I cut to size..I need to do a finish fit then rout the edge cuts and drill holes...I plan to keep this one a survivor truck so no repainting just cleaning and sealing all the trim strips.

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That’s a nice truck :metal:

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I'd check into the longevity that you can expect with red oak. I think that white oak would be a better choice, personally. The General used southern yellow pine (SYP). The important criterion for wood exposed to the weather is porosity. Pores in the end grain are like soda straws and can wick moisture way up inside the wood, leading to mold and deterioration. White oak and SYP are pretty much sealed up on the ends, so will live longer.

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I kinda just went with this looks pretty! I plan to seal it up well...And living is Socal will help a bit..It was also what I had available to me..Time will tell I guess...

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do you plan to paint or stain the wood? Factory finish would have been same as body color - and light blue is not exactly common in that year. Folks seldom install bed wood like the factory did (i.e. painted), but my humble opinion is it is the best look on something that isn't a hot rod or swb show piece - in other words, a good finish if you actually plan to use the truck like a truck and put something in the bed to haul it. Paint seals the wood quite nicely.

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Yup the wood in my Longhorn was painted orange from the factory, but it got plywood and indoor/outdoor carpet on it, and then a shell. That wood looked pretty good when I pulled the shell, carpet and plywood out to make it all new, about 5 years ago.

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I am using sapele wood it weathers good and looks awesome

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:) (clearly not med olive repaint on the 2nd pic though, ha...) But the white one was the original finish.

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https://www.mar-k.com/ has drawings of how to cut bed wood.
I always suggest that folks just tighten the strip bolts and shear them off.

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Sharp looking truck, congrats ;)

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I did a lot of reading before converting my 72 to a wood bed and found that using POR-15 on the undersides, all sides/edges and along the groves for the bed skid strips works very well...(and probably the best for the upper sides too).

See Mar-K's bed wood tests for outdoor weathering...

https://www.mar-k.com/PDFs/Instructions/wood-test-1.pdf

https://www.mar-k.com/PDFs/Instructi...alwoodtest.pdf

Dito on the white oak being better, but, like you, I ended up with red oak. Surely well treated red oak will last a long time...I'm hoping the difference is marginal.

As far as top coats go, I'm convinced for ease of maintenance that an oil treatment is best for those of us that do not want that glossy clearcoat/painted finish. I used a Penofin wood treatment stain that had some grey pigments to give an aged look, but linseed and tung oil (and likewise, even motor oil) are very good alternatives.

Here's a good thread on oils to use...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=712931

Great truck you have...enjoy the new wood!

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I milled white oak for my stepper. I'm letting it age to give it an original look I sealed it with oil based but no uv blocker . It's getting a nice black and gray tinge to it. I'll then use an exterior sealer to seal it

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Hi,
I plan to just seal the wood. The old wood looks to be the orig bed. It still had some of the blue paint on top and the lamp black on the bottom. This truck has spent most of its life in SoCal but near the beach a lot. Unfortunately which has put a lot of rust on the hardware and paint chips..It also had a camper in back which is why i think the bed is in such good shape..No big dents or bent walls..It will be a daily driver up to the point I get my Blazer done..One other odd thing is it has a next gen tail gate..the gate was painted at the same time as the truck and even had blue under the lite blue that is very close to the orig color...

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I didn't know Squarebody tailgates fit 67-72s.

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Same here..never would have tried it..I will post some photos of it

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I've made measurements of square body gates. I think they may be a tad taller???
The arms are close but not exact, same engineering for arms and latch parts...

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Where have you found sapele at a reasonable enough price to make a truck bed!?

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I had absolutely no clue the factory painted the bed wood body color. I figured the natural wood was what drove people to the wood beds...
:smoke:

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Was a wood bed a cheaper option than steel? Is it lighter? Is it less likely to over heat in the sun? Never saw a stepside with a steel bed.

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Other than the body line it fits pretty good..Most dont notice

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Thanks Yellow K/5.
You could get away with it if there were no chrome trim, especially on a backwoods bomber Blazer.
I have an aluminum trim panel on the rear of the tailgate of my '71 GMC Jimmy. A PO put it on along with TV Set style Squarebody side mirrors. I was told his other truck was a Squarebody. I was gonna change 'em out for proper vintage Below-the-Eyeline mirrors when I first got it. [1995] But they grew on me and I'm used to them. And I never could find OEM D4-somethings. The repops suck and vibrate bad, I heard.
I have a '72 K/5 in the weeds. Tub-only parts truck, but I have collected a front tin doghouse, fenders hood, radiator bulkhead etc. Tailgate was missing when I got it.
Jimmy pix w/ Sq body parts.

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Here’s a crazy thought.
Has anyone thought about using Everseal on their bed wood?
It a great product and will permanently seal the wood.
I’m having my house and decks done this summer and thought about asking them to do my new SYP boards that I have cut and ready to go in.:smoke:

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That's a solid '71, good start to a survivor project. I used Epiphanes matte to seal my hackberry bed wood, it's used for wood boats and the finish is absolutely awesome.

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Slow progress...Fitting the wood and marking for holes..then take them out and rout the edges and seal it up

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Still hacking away at this..but very close to back on the road

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Nice looking deck. I'd be afraid to haul anything messy in the bed, after that.
On the other hand, I might use real director chairs at a tailgate BBQ, rather than the nylon pop up chairs I use now.

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Looking good!

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Nice work!

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If you wood , LOL really like to achieve a authentic aged wood look the best way is to do a wood fuming process , this is done with ammonia ,it must be done outside , depending on the grade of ammonia used will corollate the time it takes , you can use your everyday store bought ammonia or a Janitorial grade , or industrial grade . you would need to build a box of some sort to house the wood something to hold the fumes in so penetration can occur , a metal bowl to pour your ammonia in and the check it every 24 hours and change to a fresh batch of ammonia , from my experience if you use red oak to achieve 50 year old looking wood would take about 5 days with Janitorial strength ammonia , this process penetrates deep in to the wood not like top coat finishes, you can sand it ,plane it it will still have the aged finish

If you can deal with industrial strength , it will cut down on the process time and it will give you the aged penetration through the entire depth of the wood , Again this is done outside I can not stress this enough and I would add use appropriate PPE when doing this . So if you want a real deal aged wood look nothing else comes close.

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I painted my bed wood to match the truck color. I began with red oak because I got it cheap. I have never heard of doing what i have done but I started out by saturating the wood with epoxy sealer (Smith's CPES), then smoothing the pores of the wood by using Total Boat Total Fair (A boat fairing epoxy used on wood boats sold by Jamestown Distributors. I have spend years working on wood boats and can guarantee this finish is bullet-proof from any sort of weather. Most folks cannot believe it is wood. But even if you want to just varnish your wood coat is first with epoxy sealer. I have quite a few more tricks regarding this process if anyone wants to learn.

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Beauty, but how could you even put anything on top of that?

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I cannot! That is a problem. But it is the same question I would ask of everyone who varnishes their wood. Just for looks. Makes it a bit of a worthless truck.

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Georgie, would West 105 make a good first coat?

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Thanks for asking. Years ago I used West system products but after awhile i just found them too expensive and not any better than other companies where I buy epoxy resin and hardener in bulk and also buy the fillers way cheaper in bulk. But the problem with West is that they do not really have a thin epoxy sealer that will soak into the wood and harden it in order to create a good substrate for subsequent layers of whatever epoxy you want to put on top. And after awhile I have become tired of mixing epoxy and creating my own "epoxy bondo" using epoxy and various fillers, always trying to achieve a good balance between flexibility and sandability. In general hard epoxies do not sand well. That is why I like the Total Boat system of epoxies form Jamestown Distributors. Their Total Boat fairing compound mixes equal parts of blue and green pre-thickened epoxy that is already formulated to sand easily and be somewhat flexible. No guesswork and no serious measuring. After I get my wood "fair" (smooth and level) I coat with an epoxy barrier coat from other companies. This barrier coat acts as an epoxy primer and since it is guaranteed waterproof to use on wood and fiberglass boat bottoms it will effectively seal water from any truck beds that you want to paint. Of course you need to treat the edges and bottoms of all boards equally or water will get in. But wood CAN be made impervious to moisture. Most of what I read on this forum is suing old technology and not even prepping the wood correctly. For instance paint sticks better when you round the very sharp edges by hand with a simple block and sandpaper. Finish failure always begins at these sharp corners. So eliminate them.

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Wow thanks for the response Georgie. I bought the West 105 with the 207 Special Clear Hardener. Mainly because they say "Blush-free 207 Special Clear Hardener was developed for coating and fiberglass cloth application where an exceptionally clear, moisture-resistant, natural wood finish is desired."

I plan on staining my wood and then coating with the 105/207, then I planned to use regular automotive clearcoat over that. Probably SPI Universal Clear.

Can't remember how I came up with this plan since it has been about 8 months since I bought the West 105/207

Do you think that sounds like a good plan?

I did put a pretty good radius on all the edges when I was sanding the white oak.

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I am glad to hear you know about putting on a radius. It will make a huge difference in longevity. I am always skeptical when I read the words "moisture- resistant". I always aim for 100% water-proof. From my experience the key to this is a good epoxy sealer. Total Boat also sells a sealer that they say can be thinned out with a solvent. I have some but have not experimented with it yet.

Epoxy applied straight to wood just sits up on it too well and does not penetrate. Hard epoxy can crack and lead to failure. A softer epoxy avoids this potential for cracking. Stains under epoxy are sometimes tricky if you do not let the stain completely dry. Just make sure yours is dry or hte epoxy can "muddy" it. I would be most interested in your experience with automotive clear coat. In general epoxy hates sunlight and should be protected by the best UV resistant barrier you can find. I would consider first applying a few layers of some of the highest rated UV protecting varnish you can find before applying the clear coat, unless the clearcoat states it has UV protection in it. That is something I have no experience with. The sunlight really tears up epoxy making it brittle and fragile and literally falling aprt into dust if not protected properly. But an epoxy layer under any varnish will also help fill in the pores of the wood and so many of these wood beds I see with "12 coats of varnish" still have not filled in the wood pores effectively and those pores can admit moisture eventually. And too many folks make the mistake of suing polyurethane. That is the worst! Good luck and let me know how the automotive clear coat works out. If it was me I would be researching some of the high-tech spray-on clear coatings developed for the marine world,

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Not trying for the super aged look just a nice used look .

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Georgie that bed looks amazing..Nice work..But mine will stay a working truck patina and all..Lol
I have the bed mostly done..just need to snug up all the nuts and then add a touch of silicon on them to keep them from coming loose...
Does any one know where I can find factory style exhaust hanger brackets. the part bolted to the frame rails that the hangers are mounted to..I am installing a dual exhaust system.

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Any updates on this, auto clear over epoxy....georgie if I coated Ash with Total boat epoxy, 1/2 gallon thinned down maybe 1 good wet coat rewetting before it drys..both sides and auto clear over..3 days or so later ...this would be fleetside long bed. Not a show truck, parked inside. And sanding before epoxy, 320 grit?...what about recoating a thicker clear epoxy as top coat instead of auto clear?...Thanks....the paint to match wood floor looks amazing, but I do want to use the truck.

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Hello Notsolo,
You are on the right track. To start with I would not sand the wood past 120. If you want to sand with 320 do that just before you put your topcoat on. But if you do what you are doing it should work out well. The key thing you are doing is thinning the first coat and getting a couple coats on both sides of the board (and edges, and ends). I would still sand with 120 after the first coat of epoxy.

Another key thing to keep in mind with epoxy is that sunlights degrades it. It will not hold up in the sun unless there are UV inhibitors on the topcoat. Most of my work is with wood boats so I simply use a varnish that clearly states it has a lot of UV inhibitors in it. I do not know if auto clear coat has any UV inhibitors in it.
Painting with a solid color topcoat will solve all your epoxy problems. And here is another TIP: acrylic latex primers work better over epoxy than any oil-based products. The oil will work but it just takes a long time to dry over epoxy. You could just do a nice job with a brush and it would probably look fine (especially if you know how to work with a brush). All the work I did on the boards in my truck bed was with a brush. The topcoat was the only coat that was sprayed.

Good luck with it and keep in touch. We love photos.