Welding in Metal bed in place of Wood Bed
 

Hey guys can I just get a factory metal bed floor and weld it in to my stepside floor. I originally have wood in there.

Bryan

My 1970 Stepside has a flat metal plate welded where a wood floor once was. It makes the entire bed real stiff and sturdy. I am going to leave the metal plate in and put a wood floor over the top of it. I can post a picture of the plate metal bed if you like. Somebody just wanted it that way and welded in the plate.

I think there is more involved than a simple weld-in. something to do with the thickness of the wood compared to steel. (around edges under wheel wells & bedsides) am I right?

That what I was thinking.I`ve done what you`re thinking on a pro-street truck where I used a factory floor and whellhouses.You just need to make up the difference in floor thickness.The sides were ok using the steel floor cross-members.The front and rear needed about 3/4-1".You`ll have to set-up and measure.I can`t remember if I needed to do anything on the sides.1/4" if anything.Sorry,been a while,truck`s gone.

i just got finished installing a metal floor in my short step side.used 16 ga.3/4" square tube for spacers in the place of the wood.i ran 6 pieces longways in the bed,spaced apart evenly.i welded the sq.tube to the factory crossmembers.i removed the factory angle strips on the side of the bed and replaced them with 1x1x3/16" angle iron and put a sheet of 3/16" sheet iron in for the floor.i spot welded the angleiron to the bed sides and the floor and then welded the floor to the sq. tubing from the bottom.i filled all the seams with 3m seamsealer.i'm going to have a sprayin liner put over the new floor.it wasn't too bad of a job sorry no pics,no digital camera :(

I wish I had a wood bed :whine:

I used to have a wood bed floor. now all I have is a rot bed floor.
I want to go with a steel floor/spray-in liner. would it work doing the 3/4 square tubing under a 73-87 floor panel?

i don't see why not. if you run the tubing longways in the bed you will have to be sure to get the tubing lined up with the ridges in the fac.panel so it will sit right.or you can run the tubing in the direction as the crossmembers.

I found a good metal floor out of a F#$% and cut it to fit my stepside used all the orignal floor supports and bolted it in.Bolted angle iron on the side's and put some seam sealer on it.I used all the existing bolt holes that were on the sides and had to drill some for the floor to keep the floor from rattling in the middle seems to be a pretty solid floor.

Wood beds are way more better looking.

matt

Wood bed floors are awesome!The only problem is,unless it`s a show truck,once you restore you can`t haul anything(even coolers,road gear,etc for trip to show)w/o taking a chance on messing it up.I restored a`72 K/20 CheyenneSuper CustomCamper loaded with options including wood bed-floor which I did in cherry & polished stainless strips/hidden hardware.It was beautiful with all the other woodgrain(I re-did the interior in planed-down cherry).But,I sold it before the floor got messed-up.Just a thought.

I dont recommend trying to fab something up with the replacement panels that you can get. It is very difficult and very expensive. I am currently replacing my wood floor with steel on my fleetside, and it is a royal pain. I am new to bodywork so it may be easy for someone with experience. Of the list of things to do, the ends are not finished, so you have to find something to do there, there is not a single dimension that is correct, and I had to split the panels in half, thru the wheel wells, trim an inch out, and weld back together, new crossmembers have to go in, etc. I will be in it for about a grand by the time I am done. Just for the floor. I would recommend using a piece of diamond plate steel, pull your wood floor out, and weld tubular crosspieces in to attatch the frame, and then use your bedsides as a template to drill the holes for mounting the sides. You will also have to weld in a support lip in the front for the front panel to fit correctly. Here is a pic of my bedfloor project, and you can see the amount of cutting and welding involved. I also had to trim 3/4 of an inch off of the sides to make the wheelwells fit right.

hey Bryan, if you ever want to go with a solid sheet of polished aluminum diamond plate, call these guys; Metal Molding Corp @ 615-865-9867, they are right in nashville. i was gonna do this on my stepside about 2 years ago, they did all of our work at Triton Boats and they will cut a sheet to size for around $140, (now that's 2 years ago price of course). ;) i think it would look killer, especially with the color that your truck is.

exactomondo, you can't beat good wood! :metal:

i had $200 or less changing my floor over to plate but it doesn't look as factory as bed panels do.