MTFCA Forum

I couldn't find this by searching the old forum. Can someone please share the dimensions of the wood for the pickup bed on a 26 roadster pickup?

Thanks,
Gary

Sketch did some years ago from original bed wood.

Thanks Dan.

Does anyone have pictures to show how the battery cover fits? I have a replacement cover that a bit too wide to fit the indent in the headboard. I intend to trim about 1/4" off of each side of the cover where it is too wide. My question is, what holds that cover in place? Does anyone have any pictures?

Thanks in advance,
Gary

The battery door (lid) lowers into the sheetmetal framing for that door that is part of the runabout rear deck. Same as the runabout with a turtle deck. The pickup bed replaces the turtle deck.

This photo shows underside of the rear deck, you can make out the frame edges bent into the sheetmetal for receiving the battery lid. Cutaway is the metal plate due to rust out, that plate covers the rear crossmember.

The pickup bed uses another plate held to the wood bed by rivets into a pair of the metal bed strips that fasten the wood boards. That plate covers up the hump plate of the rear deck sheetmetal.

Be sure to use Southern Yellow Pine. The battery trap door is a snug fit, and is exactly the same as a 1925.

Maybe 1926's are different, but my '25 boards are 13/16"

Thanks guys. My truck doesn't have the sheet metal frame for the cover. I will make some.

Gary

If the runabout rear deck metal is gone, then easy to add channel iron for holding the battery door, or wood pieces mounted under the bed board opening, fit the wood flush with the underside of the 3/4" thick boards, and the battery door lid will fit flush with the topside.



Finished look with battery door lid and hump plate installed.

Thanks for the pictures Dan. That's exactly what I'm planning to do.

On my '25, I'm pretty sure the battery box trap door lays on the floor of the rear deck.

I agree with Larry. The boards on my '25 are 7/8" plus, clearly not 3/4 inch. Ash makes a nice pick up bed if you can find it. Southern yellow pine too. Red oak is not going to give an original look.

Here we go again with guesses. I wish I could speak with actual knowledge of a 1926 pickup bed, that is why I clearly have mentioned that the information I have is for a 1925. There has to be someone out there that has a 1926 with original wood in it, or perhaps one that is laying in the yard with some original wood in it. The photo Dan posted for the battery trap door just doesn't look right to me.

So if you’re turning a roadster with a turtle deck into a pickup.....do you leave the metal floor in?