New Bed For The J4000

I bought some red oak a year ago to replace this bed with so I decided to start on it this weekend. A buddy of mine planed it down and ran it through a jointer (i think thats what its called). It was all rough cut 2x8 when we started. Me and my dad worked on it all day Saturday.
This is the old bed

Fuel tank/tool box out and all the old wood stripped off.

New wood mocked up.

Then we burned it all with a weed torch then mocked it back up to see what it looked like on the truck.

plan now is to put some sort of stain or diesel fuel and oil on it then start bolting it in.

 

Nice work.

Red oak, if the same as we have in the NE, is a porous wood - the grain has tubes that run through it and transmit moisture. The heartwood is tannin-rich and rot resistant, but in my experience the lighter color sapwood can decay very rapidly.

I would recommend careful attention to rot-proofing, especially on the end grain areas.

https://www.amazon.com/Tenino-Copper-Naphthenate-metal-Preservative/dp/B0147OQQ84/ref=sr_1_2_mod_primary_new?dchild=1&keywords=copper+preservative&qid=1620656049&sbo=RZvfv//HxDF+O5021pAnSA==&sr=8-2

 

Got the bed on and the tank back in and the ignition switch broke inside the column, my luck.