Well, all these Doublecab for sale reminded me of a question I wanted to
ask the list.

My doublecab is missing the wood bed slats, and the holes in the bed are
all welded up.  They did a very good job -- so good that I can't tell
where all of the slats go.  It appears that a slat goes in every other
trough.  Some of welds would indicate that there was one every third
trough, though.

Somebody in San Jose makes repro bed slats for old trucks.  He uses beech,
which he claims is what VW used originally.  Anybody know about Vanagon
slats?  How many should there be, and how many of each length?  I'm going
to buy a set from this guy, and trying to fit them to my truck soon.  I
plan on using rivnuts instead of rivets, with brass or stainless screws
so that the slats are removable.

A second weirdness about my truck is that the particle-board engine hatch
has been replaced with aluminum diamond-plate.  I'm planning on fabricating
a new hatch out of corrugated steel to match the bed, and having the wood
slats continue across the hatch.  Does anybody know of a place to get the
material (like a bed repair panel)?

Malcolm Holser