Plateau Pickup bed drain holes?

[H Pickup Lover]

Hi All,
I'm new here and recently acquired an HYP Plateau pick up. It rained here a while back and the rear bed (floor) of the Plateau had 4 inches or more water in it. I pushed it out with a squeegee.

My question is should there be a drainage hole(s) in the bed perhaps close to the cab?

The bed seems to be rusting. Should I use POR-15 on it.

I live in California USA and do not speak Dutch so please forgive if this question has already been asked / answered.

Kind Regards,
Garric

[ghys]

Welcome here. Even you're HY.

Original there no holes in the floor.
The best place to do that is close by the cabine. There is the lowesd point. Good coating on the floor.

Or make a rooftop over the back.

[H Pickup Lover]

Thanks for your response.

Not sure what they were thinking not adding drain holes.

[Gert-Jan Brink]

Welcome here.
Good place to ask questions since the dutch are pretty good in english and there is a good and very active H-van community with 2 big clubs.

Must be very rare , H-vans in the USA. pls add some more pictures.

[H Pickup Lover]

Hi Gert, here's a few more photos.

One of the previous owners imported this from France.

I'd like to add wood to the bed. Anyone have a good way to do this?

Best Regards,
Garric

[ghys]

First coat of paint the bed.
Best way to get some space between the metal bed and the wood.

[H Pickup Lover]

Thanks ghys.

I plan on using POR-15 to paint the bed. I'm going to drill some holes in the bed near the cab to drain the water that accumulates after washing or rain. I'm thinking 2-3cm holes?

I will have to think about adding the wood to the bed. I think the wood may hold to much moisture on top of the bed? Not sure.

Best Regards,
Garric

[LEiPiE]

You're from the land of pickups, there must be a lot of knowledge there?

I would indeed raise the bed a bit, probably by means of some small beams (like 2x5 cm spaced 30cm or so) lengthwise and then - I'm not sure if google translate does this right - concreteplex (as in: layered plywood boards topped in epoxy, often used as casts for concrete). Or you could use outdoor wood like douglas or treated wood.
Or fully glue the wood to the floor maybe, but I'm not a fan of those kind of almost irreversible changes

And indeed paint the floor first with an epoxy(-like) paint (I don't know POR-15, but seems to be a rust stopper?)

I think most HY's never had a wooden floor in them, maybe some wooden rails to be able to roll barrels of wine
This one does by the way: https://2cvgarage.nl/aanbod/hy-pickup/ You can probably mail him, or maybe he sees it here on the forum (I'm not sure which username he has)

[H Pickup Lover]

Thanks for your reply and the website link.

I'm thinking i made a mistake by drilling 3 holes in the bed close to the cab to drain the water?

Best,
Kat & Garric

[ugly american]

yes you definitely should not have drilled out the bed. the truck just needs a canvas cover if youre really worried about it. all truck beds rust just clean off the rust and paint it. or store it inside. i have two trucks, and for one i made a cover myself.

[H Pickup Lover]

Well, I'll just weld the holes shut. Or does someone know of an acceptable way to close them without welding?

The holes are perhaps an inch in diameter.

I plan on putting POR-15 on the bed.

Thanks Everyone!
Garric

[ugly american]

yeah i would weld them back up. i suggest using regular paint to seal the metal, but if you want to use the POR-15 go for it. the metal i use is regular cold rolled 16g steel. its a common mistake for people to assume the mfg did not 'know' something. why not just make a cover for it? then its protected from the rain, (originally they came with a canvas cover).

[ugly american]

like this

[skram]

Hey Garric,

if you put wood in the back, like the one at Sander Allderink or with some more spance between the planks, I advice you to use some cross-planks, let say 5. If you at to small blocks of would at the cabin site wit to pins or bolts that slide int the attachements of the "horse" (berhaps covered with some rubber from an on bicycle tire) and to small metal lips under the cross-plank at the back-site, over which the back-doors slide, the whole wooden floor can be taken in and out for claening or painting beneath it.

Willem

[H Pickup Lover]

Many thanks to all who replied!

Best Regards,
Garric