I have a new (old) bed that I will be putting onto my 55 willys truck. The floor of the bed is pretty rough and thin from rust. I plan on having wood planks installed in the finished product. Not the original wood slats, but a full wood bottom similar to most other antique trucks.

I plan on cutting away the bottom of the bed I have and leaving a little around the edge for overlap. I thought about finding some sheet metal or something to weld back in. since I will be covering it up completely anyway, can I just have the floor be the wood planks? I've seen some projects online where they did this. The wood set right on top of the cross members of the frame. Is this the best approach? I guess I was assuming I should at least put some metal back in there for the wood to rest on. Maybe I don't have to do this? As long as I treat the wood correctly for weather, I'm assuming it will not weather away many years from now.

So, the question is... put metal down, then wood. OR just go with the wood.

Do any of you have a willys truck where you put a new wood floor down in the bed?