Replacing / refinishing old Cargo Cover Bow Sides

Hey all,

For the life of me I cannot seem to dig up the dimensions on what is the proper length x width x thickness for the deuce's bow sides (that hold up bows and cargo cover).

Many of my bow sides are the worse for wear and some could be reused with sanding + painting, but I think it'd be best just to replace them all. In other words I think it'd be less work to just cut new ones, drill new holes and paint them, then try to sand down the old weather worn ones with multiple holes.

I have a full set of bow sides that came with the truck but I don't trust them to be right since they seem to be a hod-podge set. Current dimensions are about 61 7/8" long, 2 3/8" wide, and 7/8" thick.

Is this correct, if not what dimensions should I cut the new ones to be?


Oddities:
Two of the bow sides are actually much shorter than the others, but they're not broken. Two of the troop seat's bow side slots (on the passenger side) have something in them that makes one of the short bow sides the right height, the other is still a couple inches too tall. Peering down the inside of the troop seats with a flash light, I can see a section of wood inside the hole that has clearly been cut by a saw. I haven't yet pulled off the troop seats to try and discover the purpose for the section of wood down there. I can only guess that perhaps the metal "leg" of the troop seat was damaged in someway and that the wood was placed inside to sturdy/support the seats when the cargo cover was not mounted. Has anyone else seen something like that before? I'm not sure if pictures will be able to show it...


That all said, fortunately, I believe my bows are in well enough condition to be reused, perhaps not even needing any paint!

FYI there's a guy on here that's promised to put up a set of CAD drawings for the wood and perhaps other parts. I forget his name on here. If you search the forums you should be able to find it. I don't recall that he ever made good on posting them. Can you check?

Standard USGI fiberglass ones are 15/16 x 2 3/8 x 45 inches. There were some longer ones made for the cargo covers with the additional skirt sewn on, but I don't have any of them.

brianp454 said:

FYI there's a guy on here that's promised to put up a set of CAD drawings for the wood and perhaps other parts. I forget his name on here. If you search the forums you should be able to find it. I don't recall that he ever made good on posting them. Can you check?

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Well, in my several hour forum search yesterday and today if it had been posted I would think I would have found it by then. But I suppose I'll have to add some "CAD" key words to the search string.

SCSG-G4 said:

Standard USGI fiberglass ones are 15/16 x 2 3/8 x 45 inches. There were some longer ones made for the cargo covers with the additional skirt sewn on, but I don't have any of them.

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Thanks a bunch! I'm surprised that they're significantly shorter than mine...

I went to pull the truck out of the garage so I could put on the cargo cover that I bought last year and see if the bow sides were too long... and the starter wouldn't run. And the Independence Day parade is less than 2 weeks away! That's my first real issue I've had with the truck in the 3 years that I've owned it, and I wonder if it's caused by the battery disconnect switch I installed in Feb 2012. Sounds like it's not getting all the juice it should (you can hear a different, weaker, tone in the Low Pressure Alarm buzzer). I'll still have to stick a voltmeter on the batteries to make sure they're full, but I had them on a battery tender and it was only doing the maintenance float for storage... then check connections on the starter, read troubleshooting TM... Who said owning, well, any vehicle, wasn't an adventure. :]

You probably have the larger bow sides.......as I do remember I was able to get 2 of them from an 8' board......and the 3/4" will work.......has some slop in it....as Mike said they are actually 15/16" thick.......you can start off with deck boards and cut them to the width you need......you might be able to get them untreated.

If the lumber store by you doesn't sell them untreated........find a pallet company (one that makes them)......that is where I was able to get plain pine deck boards from.

eagle4g63 said:

You probably have the larger bow sides.......as I do remember I was able to get 2 of them from an 8' board......and the 3/4" will work.......has some slop in it....as Mike said they are actually 15/16" thick.......you can start off with deck boards and cut them to the width you need......you might be able to get them untreated.

If the lumber store by you doesn't sell them untreated........find a pallet company (one that makes them)......that is where I was able to get plain pine deck boards from.

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I went an remeasured mine. Looks like most of them are actually 7/8" thick, a few are 3/4". I was at the local Lowes Home Improvement store here and they sell 8' oak or poplar boards. I'll probably go with the oak as that seems to be recommended from other threads. Thanks eagle4g63 for the idea of using pallets (I did read other restoration threads where you suggested that)!

Thanks again for the valuable information, here's my newly finished bow sides and re-finished bows. The new bow sides are a little wider (2 1/2" vs 2 3/8"), but they're thinner (3/4" vs 15/16"). I still think they work very well. I ended up going with poplar wood over oak for several reasons: Cheaper, smoother grain so the finished painted product would be smoother, softer (but not too soft) so it's easier to work with (sanding/drilling), and it doesn't create as bad of splinters when the wood ages.

A couple of the bows could have stood to have been replaced, but I didn't want to go to all the work of bending new ones and setting up a jig and etc. So I stuck with with I knew and was good at, sanding and gluing! I think they're actually quite sturdy now.

Next project: Sanding and refinishing the troop seats, but I'm waiting on that one since I'd also want to sandblast and powder coat the metal hardware and I'm looking at doing both myself, or at least the sandblasting...

Valence, good job! I like your choice of wood- Poplar takes paint very well and will probably outlast all of us.
Laminating and bending new top bows would be a ton of work that most people would never see.

Do you guys think there would be a market for a more affordable set of wooden parts or is the market pretty well flooded with fiberglass?

Woodsplinter said:

Valence, good job! I like your choice of wood- Poplar takes paint very well and will probably outlast all of us.
Laminating and bending new top bows would be a ton of work that most people would never see.

Do you guys think there would be a market for a more affordable set of wooden parts or is the market pretty well flooded with fiberglass?

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Thanks Woodsplinter! I was incredibly pleased with the result! Though I was surprised at the amount of time it took to sand the new wood, and then belt sand and finish sand the old bows. Which was ALL DAY. I blame the 100 degree weather that caused me to move my work station twice as the shade moved and the dinky electric hand sander. Would be nice to have proper work benches in the garage and a pneumatic sander...

I've seen posts on here where folks didn't have to do any laminating to make the curved bows, they put the wood in a pvc pipe, capped one end, filled it with boiling water, capped the other end and then let it sit. After some length of time (I don't recall, and hour maybe?) they pulled out the saturated board and placed it in a jig that would force the wood into a bent curve then let the wood air dry...


As far as a market for affordable wooden parts, I could see it happening, but I would think it would be completely dependent on one's area/demographics. In Utah, do not know of any reliable fiberglass options other than Boyce Equipment but it seems that they want an arm and a leg for everything. I know that there is Idaho Motor Pool in western Idaho, but it's just far enough that fuel cost is prohibitive. I think that is because there are so few military bases out West here, and most of the equipment seems more readily available back East. If there were enough MV collectors but few supplies, I could see a small nitch market being available, however I would think that someone could just approach any local wood/cabinet shop to make what they need for wooden parts.

Beautiful work!!

You can see the results of the new bows and bow-sides here, when we were privileged to honor our local veterans!

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showth...go-Cover-up-or-no-cover&p=1387442#post1387442

Valence,

I had to sand my troop seats after I got my deuce and I started by using a thickness planer in my wood shop. Big mistake- the CARC is so tough it wore the planer blades down so much they didn't even reach the wood.

Plan B- the belt sander. Used 60 grit and it took all day- used a lot of sanding belts too.

I'll make my own before I ever do that again!

Mark

I have been looking at my peeling and splintered troop seats as well. They measure 3 inches wide by 3/4" thick and around 12 feet long on my M35A2.

A 12' 4x4 is really 3 3/4" square... a nice saw (Preferably a bandsaw) can turn that into 6 12 foot long 3inch wide by (just under after the kerf) 3/4 thick boards.

I could explain if needed how that has to be cut, but I think we can figure it out.

So, to replace the wooden troop seats and headache boards, you need (3) 12' 4x4 boards and a decent saw.

I was planning on using pressure treated.

Heath,

Pressure treated is normally used for ground contact applications. It doesn't take paint well.
Although they changed the chemicals used to treat it I never work with it without wearing a respirator. Band sawing 12' long pieces will create a lot of dust even if connected to a dust collector. I never use it for anything but construction but what you use is up to you. I think white oak would be a better choice.
Let us know what you decide on.

Mark

Also, a standard 4 X 4 is 3-1/2" square. Your only going to get four 3/4" pieces out of that.

Woodsplinter said:

Also, a standard 4 X 4 is 3-1/2" square. Your only going to get four 3/4" pieces out of that.

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I measured the lumber myself. I can tell you with certainty Home Depot 4x4 pressure treated posts are/were 3 3/4. (Within a 1/16th)

Perhaps there is more variation in treated vs untreated. Wood is not my bag. Frankly, I hate carpentry. But of this I am certain because it was in my hands and on my saw.

The stuff is cut all the time and I have yet to see a hazmat suit or respirator on anyone doing so. The old cyanate stuff was a different story from what I hear.

Interesting- I guess pressure treated is a little different. Thanks for the info- that's why I like this site, I always learn something new!

I was researching it after you mentioned the nominal size and noticed cedar 4x4s from various suppliers was listed at 3.75, and most of the "normal" lumber was listed at 3.5x3.5.

I have only three theories. The treated 4x4s are cut to match the dimensions of cedar as the traditional outdoor deck wood, or something in the treating process causes slight swelling, or the lumber I was cutting for my customer was slightly damp and had swelled. (It seemed quite dry to me.)

This is one of the reasons I despise "carpentry." Nothing is ever square, flat, or the actual size.

Hey- dimensional lumber is cut according to strict gov't specs- except when it isn't...