| Mile High Puma |
Mon Feb 20, 2023 2:47 pm |
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I didn't see a lot of info concerning installing the wood bed slats so I thought I would share how I did it. My wife purchased the slats from a vendor on the Samba for me as a Christmas gift.
First thing was to lay them down on the bed to prepare marking them where the existing holes are. My truck is a 1965 so I will be using 3/16" pop rivets. I decided to use aluminum rivets since they are easier to install and drill out for removal if I need to repair or replace a slat. I don't think I need to worry about galvanic corrosion with the steel bed as long as they are sealed well, also doesn't hurt that I live in a dry climate.
One you get the bed slats down you might put some weights on top of them to hold them steady, I used some heavy wood and metal pieces that were laying around. I found on my long slats that a piece of 3/4" scrap wood up against the front bulkhead spaced them out evenly in the angled slot in the rear, the short ones I used a tape measure to even them out.
Double check that they sit square in the slot and then mark them from underneath with a sharpie or pencil. I found out the hard way that it would have been easier to mark the center ones without the gas tank in the way.
After marking them I used my drill press and drilled a 1/8" pilot hole so that I could do the final drilling from the top. I found this drill bit on ebay to countersink the holes for the rivets, was around $10.
Before drilling I removed the mandrel from my rivet gun to make sure I could get it in the hole without buggerig up the edge when installing the rivet.
Leave a little space from the slat to mandrel .
Next I put on three coats of spar urethane low gloss sanding with
220 grit between coats.
My slats didn't sit flush against the bed (not sure if they are supposed to)
so I decided to put some rubber washers between the bed and slot to seal
out water, they were 1/2' x 3/16" X 1/16", purchased 100 pack from Amazon.
The bed also wasn't perfectly flat as most this old have been used so in a couple spots I doubled up on the rubber washers or used a small piece of sealing tape.
Proceeded to lay out all the slats till I was happy with the fit and then started to rivet away.
After riveting the slats on I used a qtip to swab some some more urethane
in the freshly drilled holes to seal the wood. After that dried I wanted to make sure water didn't since inside the center hole and seep past the rivet
shaft so I took a plastic syringe with clear silicone windshield sealant and put some in each hole to seal the rivets. Purge any air out of the syringe first to minimize any air bubbles, if you do get some you can pop them with a sharp tool and most will go away before the silicone hardens.
And finished.
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| busdaddy |
Mon Feb 20, 2023 2:54 pm |
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Looks good!, keep us updated on how it holds up long term.
Too late now, but they do make pop rivets with a closed end for just such applications. Stainless ones too. |
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| ryans65 |
Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:39 pm |
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| thank you, I want to eventually get a set for my single cab and was wondering what others were doing to river them down |
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| matthew henricks |
Tue Feb 21, 2023 10:56 am |
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| Very nice! |
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