Flareside: OEM Bed Wood pictures

[myrl883]

Also to add: I think if your floor had originally been equipped with boards it would have additional holes in the crossmembers that are now unused... you could look for that perhaps

Unfortunately the edges are very rotten. The center board is actually pretty good, but both sides are bad. Here are a couple of pics of the floor, and the edges under the right fender.

Kind of odd, really. This truck was built at San Jose, originally registered in CA, and has spent all of it's life in CA or the eastern WA desert.

[Rembrant]

OK, Now I'm really confused. The bed of my F100 appears to be totally original. All of the paint is aged appropriately, the condition of the stripes perfectly match the cab, etc. BUT, the floor is 3 pieces of wood exactly as the rest of you with newer flaresides have, and it has 5 late style metal strips that match Rembrandt's drawing of the '83 and newer floor strips. Maybe it isn't as much of a survivor as I believed it to be, or someone had the floor replaced many years ago. My build date is 01/81.

Well, the documented change to the 3pc floor was 07/82, but maybe they were installing them earlier at the San Jose plant? I have heard a people comment over the years that they had 1982 model year trucks with the 3pc plywood floors, but I assume Ford still built 82's for a few months after 07/82. If the rest of the truck looks to match the inside of the bed, I'd say it was original, unless like you say somebody replaced the floor 30 years ago and bought the parts from Ford?

I always thought that would be cool to walk into the parts counter at a Ford dealer and order up some wood...lol.

 

[Rembrant]

Also to add: I think if your floor had originally been equipped with boards it would have additional holes in the crossmembers that are now unused... you could look for that perhaps

I think if you look at the bed crossmembers in your truck, you'll see that even if you have the factory 3pc wood floor, the holes for the previous style board floor were there anyway. You can actually see them in the pics of the underside of my 1984 bed.

It's probably not easy to notice unless you had the two different trucks side by side, but the outer bed strip locations were actually the same between the different versions. All that changed was that the early floors had two strips down the middle, and the later trucks had one strip down the middle. The outer four strips were in the same locations on both. If you look at my picture above, you'll see that the center bolt hole is there for my 3pc floor, but the two other holes (red arrows) were there for the board floor anyway.

So when the guys were assembling these beds, they either drilled those center holes at the time, or they were there all along.

[Rembrant]

Does anyone know the difference between the early and late model metal strips?

By the way, this is what the early strips looked like below. They fit into the wood instead of on top of it.

Gary has some good picture in the bed section, under Flareside bed floors:

http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/beds-tailgates-and-components.html

I actually really like the pictures of the dark wood floor with the black strips. I think that looks great.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

Does anyone know the difference between the early and late model metal strips?

By the way, this is what the early strips looked like below. They fit into the wood instead of on top of it.

Gary has some good picture in the bed section, under Flareside bed floors:

http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/beds-tailgates-and-components.html

I actually really like the pictures of the dark wood floor with the black strips. I think that looks great.

Great documentation Cory!

The July date seems just before 'next year tooling' for most Ford plants.

I can definitely see how they might push up an assembly change at one plant just to work out any links and provide some damage control.

[Rembrant]

Great documentation Cory!

The July date seems just before 'next year tooling' for most Ford plants.

I can definitely see how they might push up an assembly change at one plant just to work out any links and provide some damage control.

Ya, I've often wondered how some of the changes played out when there were a half a dozen plants across the continent and 3-4 time zones. Surely some changes varied wildly across the production lines. The topic came up several times in arguments with Steve83...lol. I guess we agreed to disagree.

 

[reamer]

Great documentation Cory!

The July date seems just before 'next year tooling' for most Ford plants.

I can definitely see how they might push up an assembly change at one plant just to work out any links and provide some damage control.

Ya, I've often wondered how some of the changes played out when there were a half a dozen plants across the continent and 3-4 time zones. Surely some changes varied wildly across the production lines. The topic came up several times in arguments with Steve83...lol. I guess we agreed to disagree.

I actually mounted my belt sander with a jig to make it sit above a work table with adjusters so I could lower it to the table surface. Then I ground down the "early version" bed strips to mount flush like the later versions.

I didn't want the grooves to act like "water catchers"

Kinda like a metal surface plainer....

[SCFlareside]

I actually mounted my belt sander with a jig to make it sit above a work table with adjusters so I could lower it to the table surface. Then I ground down the "early version" bed strips to mount flush like the later versions.

I didn't want the grooves to act like "water catchers"

Kinda like a metal surface plainer....

I'd bet your floor is original then. Does it seem to have the MDO "shell" on the surfaces?

[myrl883]

I'd bet your floor is original then. Does it seem to have the MDO "shell" on the surfaces?

Yes, it's made from the same material. The outer overlay is in slightly better condition, but the wood plies are rotting badly along the outside edges. I'm glad that it has the later bed floor, as it looks like a lot less work to replicate.

Looks like I'm on the hunt for a couple of sheets of MDO, which doesn't seem to be sold in this part of the country!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Yes, it's made from the same material. The outer overlay is in slightly better condition, but the wood plies are rotting badly along the outside edges. I'm glad that it has the later bed floor, as it looks like a lot less work to replicate.

Looks like I'm on the hunt for a couple of sheets of MDO, which doesn't seem to be sold in this part of the country!

Ask around at real lumberyards. If they don't have it maybe they can tell you where.

Old school sign shops too.

If you go to some vinyl banner place they might not have a clue.

And you've touched on the downfall of MDO.

You need to really seal the edges, because they will wick moisture into the core and never see daylight to really dry out.

Since the surface IS waterproof, water cannot diffuse out, making a sauna that the bacteria and fungus that feed on cellulose love.