Interior/Coments Suggestions

[ford4x4fun]

OK,

I got a set of factory bucket seats for my truck. I have black carpet to go inside. I am going to get diamond plate aluminum and make my own door panels and interior trim out of it. What fabric should I use for my seats, and should I buy the cushions from LMC, or have a local shope make new cushions for the seat? Oh! I am going to paint the outside a Maroon color, would black on Maroon, and than Aluminum trim look bad on the inside Thanks in advance for all comments and suggestions!

[ford4x4fun]

This is kinda the color I am looking at. But with no trim and just Sport Custom Emblems!

[Ranchero50]

I think the texture / pattern on the diamond plate is going to be too over the top...

I would suggest this instead:
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cf ... &top_cat=1



Laid sideways it looks pretty good, the bumps are about 1/8" high x 3/8" long. I have some 7" wide sheets from a machine and they are going to go on my kick panels and bottom of the door. Stainless won't mark up like the diamond plate does and it's not as bright as polished diamond plate... Pricing is comparable to diamond plate.

Jamie

[71highboy]

i dont know about the seat part but the paint sounds awesome.i like the diamond plate also.

[1971ford]

I like Jamie's thinking about the sheet metal. I'm not a fan of diamond plate used anywhere, looks very out of place to me. I guess I've just seen two many ebay trucks ruined with excessive diamond plate. The pattern Jamie posted looks nice. Just my opinion of course...

That paint color is AMAZING. I can't decided what to paint my highboy (again... when the time comes for a real nice paintjob), that maroon is one of my top choices. Very classy.

Mustang seat thing sounds good, I like the idea of buckets in a 4x4 because a middle person straddling the sticks isn't practical. Although I love my custom bench.

[fordman]

i don't like large pieces of aluminum diamond plate. they just look to over done. when it is used for door panels and such.

[ford4x4fun]

what would I need to cut the steel? I am going to have to look into that for sure!

[SteveBrethouwer]

In my own opinion and this is what I did with my buckets, I bought a set of mustang seat covers and new foam from TMI, I thought I read somewhere the original truck buckets where really close too the mustang seats, what year I don't know but I'm sure somebody can tell you, that was one of the best upgrades I've done too my truck, Good luck with your project and Merry Xmas, Steve

[1971ford]

Take the sheet of metal to a local welding shop. To cut a sheet nicely you sheer it all 4 sides then round the edges of each cut so they arn't sharp, then round the corners. You can do the rounding and smoothing out with a grinder with an appropriate disc.
It would just be a quick $30 job at the shop I'm a part of. Shouldn't be too expensive to have them run the sheer 8 times for 8 simple cuts

[ford4x4fun]

Well thinking it over, I am starting to agrea with you all that, it could look over the top and cheesy if I use to much in the cab. So I am thinking just doing trim pieces. I am wanting to advance my fabricating abilities, seeing how I have none at the moment. What would a do it yourself guy need in a shop to do simple cuts? I was looking at Plasma Cutters, but they are pricey. I am trying to keep the rest of my build/paint job under 10,000 grand if at all possible.

I started this build about 4 years ago, but a 16 month deployment, and than moving and not being able to bring my truck at that time has halted progress. I will finish it when I get back this time... I would hate to ruin another body, because I let it sit and ruin after all the hard work I put into getting it on the truck.

Kinda a list of things I think I will need.

A little welder,
Some way to cut my custom trim pieces.
Powder coating equipment (I have a big pottery kiln to bake after I coated the parts)
Sand Blaster
Good Air Compressor

Are there anymore must haves for doing this project???

[mlheppl]

I don't know about must have, but I know I sure would like to have a vertical band saw for cutting metal. It would come in real handy for lots of fabricating projects.

[ford4x4fun]

Here is a pick of the exact color scheme I am wanting on my truck! The original color of my truck(truck cab on the right) before the Colorado salt mixed with the KY humidity to ruin the body.

[Ranchero50]

After thinking about it more, I think either a brushed or swirled aluminum panels would look pretty good and be durable enough if you either powder coated them or cleared the panels. Brushed look you get with a scotchbrite pad, swirled (think '75 firebird) takes a lot of patience or a mill. I think the brushed look woule be nice, probably horizontal brush vs. vertical.

This is the brushed effect:


Think how cool this would look if you could do the black inside of the dash bezel? Model shops carry decals similiar as well...


Cutting stainless is a pain. You want 2-3 teeth of your saw blade in the cut so a vertical bandsaw isn't ideal. Either a shear os a fine tooth 12" sawzall blade works well if you lay the saw flat (it also cuts nice straight lines).

Jamie

[69rangerf100]

Here is a pick of the exact color scheme I am wanting on my truck! The original color of my truck(truck cab on the right) before the Colorado salt mixed with the KY humidity to ruin the body.

[ Image ]

wow you are a lucky man my wife yells at me every week about the frame being on the side of the house and the old cab and bed and camper top in the back yard

[ford4x4fun]

Here is a pick of the exact color scheme I am wanting on my truck! The original color of my truck(truck cab on the right) before the Colorado salt mixed with the KY humidity to ruin the body.

[ Image ]

wow you are a lucky man my wife yells at me every week about the frame being on the side of the house and the old cab and bed and camper top in the back yard

Ha! Ha! That was my friend's yard, my wife would kill me! I have it all put together now, I did the body swap in 07 I think!



I like the brushed look! That could look real good too! I am going to order some of the metal samples from a few of the places and pick from that!