What would be the best finish for a Quarter Sawn White Oak truck bed in a refurbished 1953 Dodge pickup.
Should it have a grain sealer applied first? (I think it should, less places for water to settle)
How best to seal the ends to prevent water wicking?
What would be the best final finish? (Something catylized and sprayed with a UV inhibiter included?)
All the cutting to size and holes and test fitting will be done before all finishes. Finish will be applied and left to dry then hardware assembled then installed.
Thanks in advance,
T
Replies
Whatever the finish, post some pics of your truck when you're done. I am a huge fan of the old Dodge trucks. I was recently at a show, and a guy had a '47 with Walnut bedboards. It was absolutely gorgeous. He had the older hemi in the truck, too, and it was just beautiful.
Good luck with it.
Jeff
Unless you're going to keep the bed covered, it really won't matter what you finish it with. If it were mine, I'd skip the film finish and give it a wipe with oil from time to time.
As a kid on the farm we had 4 stake bodys and we would mop the floors with used crankcase oil from time to time. Probably not the look you want, but I thought I'd pass it along.
tbear,
I am not a big fan of catalised finishes for wood.. the risk as I see it is wood isn't metal.. You see wood reacts differantly than metal does.. wood shrinks and swells not with heat as metal does but with moisture (humidity) Now there is absolutely no way you can tighten down those bedstrips without breaking some wood cells and the finish along with it.. That's how they are gripped. leave the bolts loose enough and they will come loose and fall off. Tighten them properly and you expose the wood to moisture absorbtion.
Metal also moves very little compared to wood. So a finish that is ideal for metal is lousy for wood..
One final bit and I know that you will hate me for this but your choice of wood is bound for failure..
White oak while being extremely decay resistant is a lousy choice for a truck bed.. What makes white oak decay resistant is the tannins in it.. Those same tannins will attack any ferrous metal (steel) it comes in contact with.. all you need to do is add moisture (and it doesn't have to be rain it can be humidity) The tannins, moisture, and steel will cause rust and the resultant acid formed will rot the white oak.. If all your bedstrips are stainless steel and you've figured a way to keep the oak off the steel bedframe then disregard this advice..
OK sorry for all that,, but in my humble opinion your best finish would be a excellant spar Varnish.. it's flexible enough that you stand a chance of it retaining or not even being damaged with the tightening. The best spar varnish is eppiphanes. It's expensive and available at Mariana's or by grabbing a copy of Wood Boat Builder..
T,
Frenchy has it right about using a high quality spar varnish. The key is high quality. The kind that conscientious owners of nice wooden boats use. Do not cheap out and get Minwax or some other inexpensive stuff. It will fail, you will have even more work and you will still have to buy the good stuff.
If you go this route you will have to do maintenance on the finish based on how much exposure it gets. You want to stay ahead of any major deterioration of the finish. If this is a daily driver you will most likely have to apply additional coats yearly, plan on a full strip and refinish job 5 years or more down the road. If it is a show car..err...truck, that only sees the elements occasionally this finish will most likely outlast you.
Post some pictures. Sounds like a cool truck.
Rob
EDIT: I don't think you need any grain filler, the varnish will seal the pores just fine. You may want to apply a couple of extra coats on the end grain, but QSWO doesn't suck water in the end grain very well anyway.
Edited 2/22/2008 12:43 pm ET by Rob A.
I'll suggest that you consider a Sikkens penetrating oil finish which all have exceptional UV protection, unless you are looking for the glossy look of varnish. If you want varnish, there are any number of good finishes at a good marine or boat supply store, or boatyard.
MIchael
Dude. White oak, outside. Look at Penofin.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
Spar varnish, like they use on wood boats.
Spar varnish is too soft to use for a working truck bed. It would get scraped and start to deteriorate rapidly. It's not used on decks or hulls of wooden boats--paint is used on the hulls, and teak decks are left to turn grey, or perhaps a bit of an oil. Spar varnish is for brightwork.
I kinda got the impression that a 55 year old truck was more for show; not intended to be a work truck.
And when I was a kid, I worked on boats, and we put spar varnish on 'em. I was a kid and did what I was told. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to do, but in this area, it was the standard finish.
Edited: If one will google marine spar varnish, it will take one to hundreds of sites selling this product to go on boats.
Edited 3/4/2008 4:44 pm ET by blewcrowe
Edited 3/4/2008 4:52 pm ET by blewcrowe
Absolutely it goes on boats, just not on parts that get walked on like decks, or that are below the waterline. Bright work is the "fancy" trim typically teak, occasionally mahogany, that is there so the boats look like proper yachts. The real reason boaters insist on everyone wearing soft sold boat shoes is to keep the brightwork from being scratched, though they might tell you that its so that guests don't slip overboard. (Having a man overboard can really mess up a day. I was on a boat that had to withdraw from a race we may have been leading because a crewmember pitched over a life line because he was on the wrong side of a sheet when jibing the spinnaker pole. He was recovered quickly with zero injury.)
Edited 3/4/2008 8:04 pm ET by SteveSchoene
Actually, brightwork is brass (or other shiny metal surfaces, but mostly brass). God knows I polished enough of it in the U.S. Navy
That too is brightwork, serving the same decorative function for the Navy as varnished teak on yachts. I had a first class quartermaster working for me that delighted in discovering all the brass that lay under grey paint. He must have thought he was on a CAG instead of a LST.
I figured, based on the age of this truck, it would be a showpiece, not a working truck. Oh well ........
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled