New Pickup Bed Vs. rebuilding the Original?

A

akersa

Junior Member
I am working on my 1929 CCPU restoration, and am starting to think about the Bed. The bed I have is pretty typical of any bed you are going to find it isn't in terrible shape, but it has seen a lot of use and will require quite a bit of straightening. So I am wondering with all of the new beds that are being manufactured what your thoughts are on if I should just buy a new bed. I am not building this truck to be a fine point vehicle. I am building it to enjoy and drive. It isn't a numbers matching build as I have accumulated parts over a couple of decades to build this. So going with a new bed vs. original doesn't matter to me as far as worried about not all being original steel. I am just looking for advice if the new beds are worth the $1500 to $1800 that they sell for. Also looking for advice as to what manufacturer I should look at for buying one. Based of off pictures from several different suppliers I am guessing that there are really only a couple of different manufacturers building them and then they are just being resold under other names. I would love to get your advice on this.

Thanks,
Adam Akers
 
I restored a bed that was in pretty bad shape years ago (1976), before the reproductions were available. There weren't really a lot of sheet metal parts for the bed available either. The rear channel, for example, wasn't, or the stake pockets, and mine were really badly rusted out. It gave me a great feeling of satisfaction to have done it, but it's a tremendous amount of work. Personally, I'd go with the new bed. You'll have your truck on the road a whole lot sooner. Brookville stuff is good.
 
I restored a bed in the late ‘80s. Used Mack Hils sheet metal and original metal. Worked out great.

http://mack-products.com/

He wrote the book on Pickups.

I suspect the Brookville bed comes from Mack Hils, but don’t know for sure


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I have two pickups and have used an old bed for one with a lot of Brookfield replacement parts. For the second one I went with an unassembled Brookfield. I spent a day riveting the one together and both turned out very nice. The first one I used the subrails and the stake pockets and that is about all from the original. I would sell the old one (They sell easy) and buy an unassembled Brookville and save the crating charge.
 
I have gone both ways on the CCPU bed. 40 years ago I restored an original rusted out bed. I used the pick up a lot and two years ago I bought a new bed to replace the old one because the rust had came back through again. The new bed had no issues that the old bed had and it was a whiz to assemble and install. It was a head scratcher as to what length rivets went into which location. Looking at the old bed helped sort out all of the rivet locations. The new bed is so perfect that people in the know usually can identify it as a new bed. I would buy a new bed again if needed.
 
I faced the same problem - Do I fix all the rust areas, and straighten out the sheet metal, then body work and then the paint? I went that way, and after many hours (estimate 30+) I still have a bed with a lot of blemishes on the inside - and more than I would like on the outside. I spent about $800 on parts, including stainless strips and bolts. The Tailgate is worse. Now I have to decide - do I buy a nice new tailgate - that will make the bed look like crap... or spend another 10 hours trying to bring my old tail gate back.

Unless funds are really tight, I would buy a new bed from Brookfield and spend time driving up and picking it up - as opposed to having it shipped. New wood, strips, everything fits, and it’s done.
New Tailgate will match. Quality is pretty good from the ones I’ve seen
 

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The new beds are very nice, and very accurate as to details. Its a tossup as to your decision. The price is reasonable when the work is considered to fix the old. I fixed the original bed, but mine had minimal rust perforations, mostly surface pitting. I did the bed last as to metal work, and by then, I was doing my best work. Quite a sense of satisfaction with the result.
 
Great points above. Two thoughts to interject. To properly restore an original bed, you must be able to shrink metal in that what shows on the outside shows on the inside. If you use filler on an outside dent, it will show on the inside, -and visa-versa.


Second, a bed ordered in 'knock-down' is easy to assemble however not easy to assemble square and parallel without any twist unless you have a fixture. There are many repro beds out there that suffer from this.
 
I have a real nice bed I bought from a man that bought a new one.While it looks really nice,he was having his truck done in black,he wanted nice,and the shop told him,sure we can make that bed nice enough for black.X amount per hour for whatever it takes.They actually had a good idea of what it was going to take them.When he told them what a new one costs they just told him that's a no-brainer,buy it.I think I've bought five new ones over the years,I can't remember when the first one was but I paid $900.for it.
 
They have a number of events around the country that they attend. You should check the Events section on the Brockville website to see if they have an event near you.

Here in Southern California they have a truck full of their products on display at the National Roadster Show at the Pomona Fairplex in January, and the LA Roadster Show in June, also at Pomona.

I bought some rear fenders and running boards for my 30 Roadster a couple of yours ago at Pomona. They even helped me take the stuff to my car.

David Serrano
 
Buy the new tray.

I am sure a guy with a driver car will pay you good for your old beat up one.

Personally I prefer the beat up look and I can use it for work with no qualms.
 
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