Working On My Old Pickup Truck Again, part 2

Hello, and welcome to my page!

It's been about a month since I wrote part 1 of this story, I figured that it was about time to write a follow-up to that post. If you would like to read part 1, here is the link.
https://peakd.com/car-repair/@amberyooper/working-on-my-old-pickup-truck-again-part-1

Where I left off with the last post, I was almost done with installing the cross-members for the flatbed that I've been building on the back of my old Ford Ranger pickup truck.

I had to build one more support for the deck before I could start putting the deck on the flat bed frame. There was an unsupported space in the middle of the bed where I couldn't use a 4X4 for support due to the hump in the frame over the axle. I had to build that support from treated 2X4s. You can see the piece of 2X4 that I screwed to the bottom of the crossing support to give it a bit more stiffness. A 2X4 laid flat is not very good support by it's self.

I also had to leave a gap over the wheels to account for upward movement of the wheels when driving on a bumpy road or hauling heavy stuff. I used painted steel brackets and stainless steel lag bolts to hold the brace in place, along with the porch screws to hold the brackets in place until I could get the stainless steel lag bolts.

I decided to use treated 5 quarter porch boards for the deck on the flatbed. The 5 quarter boards are 1-1/4 inches thick, and they're better quality boards than the standard porch deck boards. Of course, they're also more expensive. I figured that it was worth buying the better quality boards, considering that they would be the deck on the flat bed. I was extra picky about the boards that I bought to make sure that they were not warped. I needed 6 foot long boards, so to save a bit of money, I bought 12 foot boards and cut them in half. That makes much less waste than getting 8 foot boards and having to cut 2 feet off each one.

I screwed the first 2 boards down on the outer edges of the flat bed after cutting them to length. Then I laid the other boards on the flat bed frame to see how they would fit. Porch boards are planed with rounded edges, which wouldn't be a problem normally, but there were irregularities down the length of the board, making them not fit together as well as I wanted.

I decided to run the boards through my table saw to cut the edges off and to cut them straight. I also decided that I needed to use a straight edge as a guide for cutting the first side so that it would actually be straight. I drilled holes along one edge of my 6 foot long straight edge, and screwed it to the board along one edge.

I set the tablesaw guide so that it would cut just the edge of the board off. I didn't want to make the boards any more narrow than necessary. Then I ran the boards through the saw, using the straight edge up against the tablesaw guide to keep the cut straight. I cut 1 edge of all the boards that I had, using the straight edge on each board.

Once I had one edge cut on all the boards that I had, I set the tablesaw guide to cut just the edge off the other side of each board. I cut the boards all to the same width that way. After that was done, I laid them all on the frame and checked the fit of one to the next. They all came out straight enough to fit together well.

I didn't have enough boards to cover the entire bed of the flat bed, so I had to go and buy a few more. When I bought the first boards, I knew that there would not be enough, but I didn't know how many more I would need at that time. After getting all the boards I had on the deck, I was able to measure the remaining space and figure out how many more boards I would need. I also had to account for cutting the edges off the rest of the boards when I got them.

Once I had the rest of the boards cut, I was able to cut them to the exact length and screw them on. I also decided to use a 2X6 for the end cap for the flat bed. I had to cut notches in the 2X6 on both ends to clear the tail lights that I mounted under the rear frame 4X4. I figured that the 2X6 end cap would protect the ends of the deck boards, and perhaps help protect the tail lights also.

After that, it was just a matter of screwing all the deck boards down to the frame. I had to cut one of the deck boards a bit more narrow to fit in the last space in the middle properly.

Next, I have to build a box of some kind around the gas tank filler tube to protect it. I will also have to decide what kind of sides and tailgate I want to build for the flat bed. Im still pondering those decisions, but maybe I'll come up with a plan before it starts getting cold outside. I'm at a good stopping point right now, and it's canning season so I'm a bit more busy than I would be without the garden.

Well, that's all I have for this post, I hope you found it interesting!
Thanks for stopping by to check out this post!