My truck was a Norwegian return. I believe the body is original as it has the large head carriage bolts (most rust beyond saving). The bed was so rotted that if you stepped on it and not on the steel wear rods you would go through to the ground.
Off she came prior to any sand blasting work. It made it much easier to get to the drivetrain and frame parts.
As the truck nears completion I am now on to the bed. It was my original intention to restore this using original components. The $2500+ cost of the raw Oak alone to do the bed was not unexpected but still a shock. I opted for the cheaper way of using readily available 2 by Pressure Treated Lumber. It was 10% of the Oak cost.
For wood that will be trampled on and mostly covered with Cargo, troop seats, and a tarpaulin I could not see spending the extra $2300. Also $2500 is not in the budget at this time. That would have put off doing the cargo body until at least next summer. I want to drive and use this baby...not look at it sitting in the yard! If I don't like the way it wears I can always yank it off and put down the authentic stuff. $200 is not too much of a sacrifice. So I am using PT.
I also found that the rear compartment floor, tongue and groove pine, was rotted out and needed to be replaced. That was done in PT too as viewed below.
The trouble with the composite bed is that there is 7 different widths of the boards in 14 pieces. Also with PT (and green oak) there will always be some shrinkage. So every piece had to be custom measured and cut to a fit to measure width. No mass production here.
It required a custom rip for width and then the use of my router table to cut the "groove" that the steel wear plates would fit into. You can see from the pics that the bolts go to pre-drilled holes in the steel stringers to hold down the steel wear rails . These don't go through the wood. However there are some that just go through the wood only but not on every board.
I used standard carriage bolts bought over the internet in bulk. I know that large head carriage bolts are what was originally on the truck. But the cost difference of 5 times eliminated the large head. Again because in most cases the bed won't be seen. Bolts, nuts, washers in bulk ran $200.
The other issue is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to use rachets on the 3 outside boards on each side because of the clearance on the stringers. I was lucky enough to have a box wrench with rachet built into the box side, a real life saver.
Prior to the wood installation the bottom of the board was hand painted with OD paint.
So that is my plight. Lots of work, easy work, but very time consuming. Total time per board for the 4 boards is about 1 hour each, cutting, routering, and installation.
Just thought you all might like to know.
Bill
The PT wood does a nice job and when painted who will know? Here in Canada the PT wood looks like crap. All our good stuff goes to the US and we are left with crooked, knotty sh*#. It helps our economy though and we are left with more $$$ to spend on our trucks. 
