Painting underside of bed

art ebeling

art ebeling

Well-known member
I am working on a 36 Pickup. Does the wood subfloor that shows from underneath get painted or is it left bare and only the steel subframe painted? Art
 
Good question. I painted mine. I have seen some evidence of what appeared to be "overspray" on the underside, but that really doesn't make sense.
 
The wood was treated with stain. The best choice is Minwax Ebony.
One would think............that Ford would NOT have painted the entire wood bottom -- waste of paint, so overspray would be the logical choice. That is what I did with mine.
 

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Lawson...........that is not what Ford did. The wood was stained. The under the cab wood, the under the box blocks, the wood under the box -- all stained with something. The closest reproduction stain is Minwax Ebony -- this is information from the late Roy Nacewicz, and I trust his research.
 
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Kube did a restoration thread here on a 39ish pickup. I looked for it. Covered what he did. Very nice restoration.


On a personal note. If it's not points. paint or treat the wood. My 38 with a wood subfloor under sheetmetal bed (last yr) was raw wood as best I could tell after 80 yrs. Suppose the best treatment back then was either hardwood, paint/stain, or creosote. Best I can tell is it was hardwood.
 
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nelsb01 said:
The wood was treated with stain. The best choice is Minwax Ebony.
One would think............that Ford would NOT have painted the entire wood bottom -- waste of paint, so overspray would be the logical choice. That is what I did with mine.
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Occam's razor. The simplest answer is usually correct.
 
nelsb01 said:
Lawson...........that is not what Ford did. The wood was stained. The under the cab wood, the under the box blocks, the wood under the box -- all stained with something. The closest reproduction stain is Minwax Ebony -- this is information from the late Roy Nacewicz, and I trust his research.
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I purchased a lot of raven bolts and nickle plated screws from Roy. His name was mentioned by Joy at Mac Hills when I picked the bed up. He used ro supply them the bed to frame bolts they no longer have. Thanks for the answers. Art
 
Tinker said:
Kube did a restoration thread here on a 39ish pickup. I looked for it. Covered what he did. Very nice restoration.


On a personal note. If it's not points. paint or treat the wood. My 38 with a wood subfloor under sheetmetal bed (last yr) was raw wood as best I could tell after 80 yrs. Suppose the best treatment back then was either hardwood, paint/stain, or creosote. Best I can tell is it was hardwood.
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Tinker, I believe I had more fun restoring that truck than perhaps any of the other vehicles I'd done. Just plain fun :)

Ford did in fact treat the wood. If I recall correctly (oh oh) they used a mixture of "scrap" oils. The end result was wood that was blackened.

MinWax, Ebony, as posted earlier is a very good product to simulate the original finish. I use two coats, occasionally three, to get the wood dark enough to replicate the original.

The two photos I'd attached are from that '40. It is, I'd think it's obvious, that it was "over restored".
Regardless, the wood was not directly painted.
 

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Coming on 52 years as a professional woodworker with many repair/restoration projects involving older wood structures, I would definately seal or saturate any hardwood under a vehicle. Red oak, maple, birch and many other hardwoods are quite prone to rot and bug infestation. Bed wood was almost always a softwood. Not soft like white pine, cedar or redwood, but forms of hard southern pine (pitch pine, yellow pine, loblolly), various species of fir etc. White oak and locust would be good choices for new structural under cab members. In old New England quarried granite fence posts were not uncommon. It was said that if one were to set a granite post and a locust post alongside each other, the granite one would outlast the locust one by a year.
 
highbeams said:
I had a '36 half-ton; the subfloor wood wasn't painted nor treated. I also had a '38 half-ton and a '40 half-ton; neither was painted nor treated.

* hardwood was not . . . WOULD NOT. . . . . be used for that . . . . .

. . . . . at Ford; ESPECIALLY HENRY IN THE '30S & '40 & '41 would truly NOT CONSIDER IT,(despite his hardwood forests in Michigan.

to wit;Henry: "What? You're fired for such a foolish thought!
Right out that door, below the red E-X-I-T. (pointing) GET OUT! OUT! "

I can't imagine Ford doing ANYTHING to the subfloor wood. Why would they . . . The
buyer of a new pickup would probably use it for, what, 2, 3, 4, 5 years. The next buyer
couldn't complain because it's a used vehicle. if the wood was deteriorating (which it
absolutely would not because the environmental elements will not and cannot 'get up
there' to do ANY damage. (4 fenders protect the underside from splash. - replies welcome-.

THANK YOU!
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Whether or not you are able to imagine Ford doing this, they in fact, did.
 
Not beng BBC a stock restoration guy, I primed and painted the CT under side of my non-stock 40 pickup using Spray paint and Satin black was the top coat. Just in case there are C others here on the Barn building “outside the box” Ford pickups…….
 
Just as a point of reference, in the mid-1930's at least, Ford painted, in the same body color, the entire big truck flatbed assembly after it was fully assembled. This included the underside metal ribs and wood floor. I know this is not the same issue you guys are discussing with pickups, but I just wanted to chime in that Ford did, for some models at least, paint the underside of the bed. The body color painting includes not only all of the steel framing parts, but the wood and hardware too as it was done after being fully assembled. The racks were also individually painted body color, fully assembled with wood slats riveted to metal stakes.
My opinion comes from studying lots of factory photos of truck beds at the Ford Archives as well as looking at several original survivor trucks. Thanks for this discussion as I learned something about pickup beds that I didn't know.
 
I restored my '34 pickup and the wood under the bed was "bird's eye maple" tongue and grove. It had a "dark color stain" and I used Ebony stain when I replaced the wood. That is what I did.

Henry
 
totto said:
I restored my '34 pickup and the wood under the bed was "bird's eye maple" tongue and grove. It had a "dark color stain" and I used Ebony stain when I replaced the wood. That is what I did.

Henry
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Well. bird's eye maple is pretty hard to miss. I have most experience with original boxes from '42 - '59. All softwood. But as far as sealing hardwood goes, there was an all original '46 ford wagon in a garage here on Orcas when I arrived in '78. A new friend here knew I had wood boat experience so we went and looked at the problem. Powder post beetles had riddled the woodwork. My friend said his sister had inherited it from their dad and left it outside for quite a few years and the varnish was very compromised. Then came the bugs and they continued their march after it was garaged. My friend moved to Nevada and took the wagon. Powder post beetles like their wood very damp, so bugs died out. It got sold to a guy in California who resto-modded it and drives it with the bug holes. Moral here is hardwood without sealer is excellent bug food. Maple is their favorite, and I think 'Sugarmaker' here on the 'barn could tell us why. :) My woodie is sealed inside, outside,in between and beneath.
 
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