[joedoh]

thanks! eagle eyed viewers will remember I put all the mark k bed wood dims in a spreadsheet and figured out that 6 8" wide boards with the 0.5" between them was exactly the same width as the mar k dims for 9 boards and 0.5 between. so why do I have 7 boards and the center one LOOKS to be 3.5" wide...

well, hubris mostly. yoshi called it in his post on the main page, that he cut his boards exactly to the mar k dims and he had a gap. I asked him to measure his boards and he promptly did not. it was in the back of my mind also, but I promptly did not go out and measure the width of my bed to compare. turns out, I should have. Putting all my faith in the mar k dims, which were confirmed on the classic heartbeat bed wood page, I cut my outer boards for the wheel wells and laid it all in and...

it didnt fit. I dont know if its the angle strips (shouldnt be that) or that the online dims are actual width PLUS the milled pat for the strip (so an 8" board would actually be about 9" wide but only 8" between strips...) but for some reason, I had about a 3.5" gap, necessitating an additional board (easy but inconvenient) and an additional strip from LMC, cheap unless you figure cost + shipping one single strip plus the cost + shipping of the other 5 strips is substantailly MORE than ordering a full NINE PIECE SET and shipping it.

I actually almost ordered a 9 piece set the second time to have 8 spares for the next truck, but I didnt want to chance them being punched with square holes. see, even though the LMC website SAYS the strips are prepunched, the original 5 showed up unpunched, a fact that originally miffed me. but the more I though about it, hey great, because I could drill my own holes and use my own fasteners since I was screwing it down to the metal S10 floor and not using the regular carriage bolts. it was a nail biter to see if the additional strip would come unpunched and sure enough, no worries. I had that phone call all laid out in my mind haha.

so 30 holes in the strips and 38 stainless fasteners (8 in the side boards), 6 strips, 6 8" boards and one 4" board, and a whole lot of pre drilling because stainless sheetmetal screws like to SNAP when you try to plunge them into sheetmetal.

/rant. well not really a rant. more of an anecdote of a pissy, whiny, my hand hurts, mommy make it feel better kind of nature.