Speaking of old trucks... I thought this was fairly cool-
We made a bed floor for a '67 Ford short / wide pickup yesterday.
The original was useless, too badly beaten to use even though the bed will have a wood floor kit installed over it. We needed a strong fresh floor that will hold a load like the gennie would, but it didn't have to look just like the old one. Replacement quarter-floor sections are available but at $250 a pop plus shipping. Ouch, then you gotta weld em together! Screw that. The idea of using a late model salvage floor did flash across the radar but that was still too much labor. Heres what ended up happening...
Pickup with trailer goes across the highway to a metal vendor, picks up a 5' x 10' sheet of hot rolled 16 gauge steel just under $80, hauls it to shop.
Piece is cut to proper length / width and marked for side flange bends and strengthening beads.
Edge flanges were roughed in with a 3 lb. mini-sledge hammer with the floor hanging off the edge of our frame rack.
Then two guys held the floor perpendicular to that rack with the rough flange clamped down while a door skinning hammer was used to flatten it. The sides of the floor attach with those downward flanges but the ends overlap braces.
Then, four guys using one of these...
( Thats a Woodward Fab WFBR24P )
... worked as a team to roll the series of beads you see in the pic below into that big heavy sheet of metal. We all learned from it but also made a cool part from scratch which is like my favorite thing to do now. See where we were learning, on that second bead from the right? Yeah a little hammer and dolly will fix that up, no worries. Again, I was just glad to be part of the crew. A lot of smooth teamwork was required to not screw it up totally. Mike is currently re-fitting xmembers and wheelwells all together with the new floor. I think it looks great for something thats gonna be covered in wood anyway. Problem solved, money saved.
