1936 Pickup Bed Questions

[Timstruck]

I am working on the bed of my stock '36 pickup. I want to put in an aftermarket wood floor with metal strips in between.

I have to replace all three sides as they are quite beat up and the original metal floor is rusted out, but the frame is good.

I am trying to determine if I need to re-install the original metal floor that sits on top of the wooden sub-floor. The metal floor has a small flange that is bent up and is riveted to the sides and front all the way around from the factory about every 5 inches or so and it seems to me that it is needed for structural integrity. Without the metal floor, the front panel has nothing to connect to along it's bottom. As well, both sides are only attached to the metal floor and are not attached at all to the box frame except in the front and back corners.

By the way, I contacted a couple places that make wood kits and they were basically no help at all. One guy told me that almost all pickup beds were wood and that steel is rare. Another guy told me that the side and front panels should have been attached to the box frame, not the floor.


If anyone has done this job, could you please share what you did?

Thanks. Tim