Re-Restoring wood bed...?

[Steve Van Gent]

I am reaching out for some collective knowledge;

I just looked back on forum, I did my restore of my truck starting in 2009 and into 2010. IE, about 12 years ago. At the time, I installed Classic Industries Red Oak wood floors and chrome strips/bolts. 5 coats of Spar Clear Urethane. I got huge compliments on how amazing my bed was;

Fast forward to today (12 years later); Not as amazing anymore. The Urethane is starting to fail I suspect. In any case, the wood, where it is exposed to air, is discoloring.

My truck is a garaged kept truck, I bring it out about 2 weeks total per year for shows. Never sees water unless it is washing it. We do get serious sun here, but only 2 weeks per year tops...

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS;

1. Can this wood be saved?
2. Should I have re-applied urethane? How often?
3. Should I buy new wood and abandon this wood?
4. If I buy new wood, is this old wood worth anything?

3 PICS ATTACHED:

1. Original bed pic after install.
2. Pic of bed now.
3. Close-up.


Thoughts? Any experience with this?

[Chevy Fleetside]

Yes you can reuse wood. You will probably want to take it part and do it that way. It will be a lot of sanding. If you know someone with a drum sander that you can pass the wood through it was be a lot easier. You could maybe us a bench top plainer and take off very little from the top. You might even be able to use a belt sander with the bed taken apart of course.
You could try sanding it in place. Put tape over your strips so you don't sand those. Only problem with doing it that was is you can't reseal the rest of the board.
Forgot to mention. It the stains go to deep then you might be taking off to much material.

[Steve Van Gent]

Cool to hear;

Next question: Since I will be tearing out the wood, does the labor of sanding down wood (time) and refinishing VS buying new wood and simply Urethane-ing it (cost) is the correct way to go? Man hours guess? I don't have infinite time...or infinite money...

[Steve Van Gent]

Also, is Urethane a maintenance item? Should I put new coat down each year???

[vin63]

May I ask what you treated the wood with before applying the urethane? The reason I ask is if something organic may have been trapped under the urethane.

[Steve Van Gent]

light sand edges and acetone wipe...

[Steve Van Gent]

One other thing to remember here;

This bed has looked really good for about 10 years, it is only last few years it starting to look bad...A 10 year life is not too bad...

[vin63]

Gotcha...from your description of the truck being garaged kept for the vast majority of time, etc., might explain the appearance, to me, of mold. The marine urethane would slow the growth for quite some time, but it would eventually make its appearance. I hope the discoloration is not mold, but if it is, it can be tough to get rid of, and might end up being better to go with a new bedwood kit. In either case, I would stain (even clear) treat the wood before applying urethane.

Originally Posted by Steve Van Gent

light sand edges and acetone wipe...

[AcampoDave]

I've noticed when doing oak that the areas of darker grain in the wood are more porous than the smoother wood surrounding it. (And those grain patterns soak up varnish at a greater rate too.) Also since that grain goes thru the wood, sanding it will not even it out. Upon close inspection of a fresh piece of oak it also seems to me that the grainier patterns are of a rougher texture regardless of how hard I sand it. In the pics it looks as though the varnish in the grain patterns has become compromised possibly due to the observations I mentioned and humidity has wicked under the surrounding areas. I would pull one board and hit it with a piece of sandpaper while looking to see if the varnish is flaking or showing hairline line cracks in the troubled areas and if those trouble spots are indeed related to the grain patterns of the wood.
These are just my observstions based on re-doing my oak kitchen cabinets and how humidity from the stove and dishwasher seemed to affect them over the course of 20 years. Good luck and keep us up to date on what you find out please.

[bhap]

You may want to look at using something like this:

http://www.smithandcompany.org/CPES/

[Steve Van Gent]

Originally Posted by vin63

Gotcha...from your description of the truck being garaged kept for the vast majority of time, etc., might explain the appearance, to me, of mold. The marine urethane would slow the growth for quite some time, but it would eventually make its appearance. I hope the discoloration is not mold, but if it is, it can be tough to get rid of, and might end up being better to go with a new bedwood kit. In either case, I would stain (even clear) treat the wood before applying urethane.

If it is mold, it is odd. Where I am in California, we have really low relative humidity, it rarely gets below 32F, summer (from May to October) is usually 100F+. Again, this truck lives in garage and does not get wet other than a few baths a year, followed by towel drying.

I find it odd that I am only one that has experienced this. I am not interested in a patch for this issue; I want my truck to look great. I guess the answer is to start over with new wood.

Anyone looking for slightly used bed wood? It will probably take a few months to get wood ordered, prepped and coated...

[Steve Van Gent]

Originally Posted by AcampoDave

I've noticed when doing oak that the areas of darker grain in the wood are more porous than the smoother wood surrounding it. (And those grain patterns soak up varnish at a greater rate too.) Also since that grain goes thru the wood, sanding it will not even it out. Upon close inspection of a fresh piece of oak it also seems to me that the grainier patterns are of a rougher texture regardless of how hard I sand it. In the pics it looks as though the varnish in the grain patterns has become compromised possibly due to the observations I mentioned and humidity has wicked under the surrounding areas. I would pull one board and hit it with a piece of sandpaper while looking to see if the varnish is flaking or showing hairline line cracks in the troubled areas and if those trouble spots are indeed related to the grain patterns of the wood.
These are just my observations based on re-doing my oak kitchen cabinets and how humidity from the stove and dishwasher seemed to affect them over the course of 20 years. Good luck and keep us up to date on what you find out please.

I feel like you are on to something here; There does seem to be a correlation to grain and roughness in wood vs discoloration. Additionally, if you look at the color of the wood in my bed, you will see two slight darker red boards (number 3 from both edges) that are unaffected while the lighter colored boards are failing...? Also, the boards seem to be much worse towards the cab rather than tailgate...?

[AcampoDave]

Originally Posted by Steve Van Gent

I feel like you are on to something here; There does seem to be a correlation to grain and roughness in wood vs discoloration. Additionally, if you look at the color of the wood in my bed, you will see two slight darker red boards (number 3 from both edges) that are unaffected while the lighter colored boards are failing...? Also, the boards seem to be much worse towards the cab rather than tailgate...?

Could it also be that vibration and the bed strips caused wear to the finish on the edges of the wood. Under there, it would also be vulnerable to the accumulation of crud which would wick and retain moisture while remaining out of sight out of mind until it spread toward the middle of the planks...edit: crud doesn't have to come from above, road dust could find its way up from below too.

[vin63]

Yep, I grew up in Stockton and raced at the Redding Drag Strip quite a bit. It doesn't take much humidity and keep in mind that the wood itself retains some moisture. The wide temperature swings can compromise the urethane as the wood expands and contracts quite a bit. I think it's not common because the vast majority of bedwood finishes include a stain treatment before the urethane application.

Originally Posted by Steve Van Gent

If it is mold, it is odd. Where I am in California, we have really low relative humidity, it rarely gets below 32F, summer (from May to October) is usually 100F+. Again, this truck lives in garage and does not get wet other than a few baths a year, followed by towel drying.

I find it odd that I am only one that has experienced this. I am not interested in a patch for this issue; I want my truck to look great. I guess the answer is to start over with new wood.

Anyone looking for slightly used bed wood? It will probably take a few months to get wood ordered, prepped and coated...