1965 Chevy Pickup & Hemi Hydro combo

And the bed completely mocked-up...on the top side at least.



Once I was happy with the various pieces, I cut the bottom pieces to match, and marked each wood strip's location so I know where they belong.



Next up was putting one wood slat in at a time, then gluing the retaining strap tightly against the wood strip. It came out great, I think I'll keep this method, it works well!



I removed the wood, and this is how the .010 sheet of styrene looks with the retaining straps glued down.

A quick shot of the bottom side, the retaining straps are glued down here also. I need to add the cross bracing and the mounts for the frame still, I'll work on that later tonight if I can.



And a couple of shots of the whole assembly slid out of the bed, this was way too easy!

that looks great mike, how many trial and error hits on the basswood before it fit just right?

The four outer pieces were easy, first try nailed them down. The two center pieces took about six tries. I wanted to do 7 slats like the kit bed had, but the outer slats would have barely been there, so I modified the layout a bit and worked from the outer edges in. Once I had the outer four slats worked out (They're all the same size), I made the center two slats fit the opening left. If I do another wood bed. I'll do it this way, it worked out much easier than on the '50 Chevy.

I located my stain and prepped the wood for some color. A bit of sanding to smooth out the wood, and some stain was applied, making the boards look nice and pretty!

A bit of 220 gets the wood all smooth and ready for...



The satin! Easy to apply (I used a paper towel!), and it makes the Basswood look great!







The wood is all finished, I'll hopefully be able to get the bed floor all together tomorrow. I've still got a lot of work to do on the retaining straps!