Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
Here's a picture of the IPE bed mock-up. Finally started working on it, so far I'm 2 days in. A real learning experience, to be honest, I'm glad when the bed floor is done. Some of the square holes in the new bed strips are not located where they should be, meaning I will have to oblong the holes in the cross sills to get everything to fit... the glory of repro parts.
Luckily I can use the car lift, which saves me from having to crawl underneath every time to fasten the bolts.
I've treated the IPE board with 2 coats of hardwood oil, and more coats on the ends. The bed strip grooves were cut in the boards, and I added water gutters every 10 inches so the water can run out of the grooves. See picture.
The oil really makes the wood come alive, as you can see in the last picture. As you may have noticed I had to make the 7 7/16" and 6 3/8" boards out of 2 pieces, which and glued together with tongue and groove. I tried to match them as good as I could, and I really like the sheer difference there is in the wood texture and colors. Makes it come alive to me.
Hopefully, I can finish the bed floor next week. Then I'm going to start on the propane conversion.
If you want to create a bed floor that is long-lasting, and something that is different than plain oak, I would definitely recommend IPE. One thing though, if you're working with the wood, I recommend working outside or inside with proper ventilation. There's this yellow dust in the wood, it is nasty stuff.
Last edited by Prowbar; June 4th, 2022 at 06:53 PM.
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