I have made 2 beds out of aluminum on some show trucks.
They are constructed of an inner frame of 1/2" square tubing which looks like a the side of a Jaws shark cage where the inner bars coincide where the bed strips. The shark cage is sandwiched between two sheets of 1/16" thickness sheets of aluminum. I covered one of them with carbon fiber mat and epoxy resin and bolted SS bedstrips on top. It has been a big hit on the car show circuit.
The other one is still a work in progress. I tried to use woodgrain snap-in vinyl flooring, but it failed miserably in the sun at end joints. The end joints were necessary since they only make the vinyl flooring in 4 foot sections. Those snap-in end joints are very thin and curled up horribly. I need to come up with something else. Any ideas out there? It would need to be in the neighborhood of 3/16" thickness.
