The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Upholstering Rear of Cab

I relocated the gas tank on me 56 pickup to under the box and now want close the area behind the seat with an upholstered panel. I added a sheet metal rib to the floor of the cab to attach this panel to.
What material can I use as a backer for this panel that will be rigid enough to mount skeakers to and bend to an approx 6" rad at the at both sides to contour the cab?
I plan to glue fabrick to this backer panel, thinking of heavy felt or cordory to match the 92 Bonnivle seat I am using. Anyone know of a source were the average shmuck can buy OEM fabrick?
Thanks in advance

I think that curve in the corners is a bit too tight to have anything make the bend without kinking or breaking - might experiment with steaming some door skin panel type stuff

for material, try an upholstery shop

Bill

1/4" plywood for the panel, and an upholstery shop for the fabric.

hey 1hotrodtruck
I do upholstery and I have been using ABS 1/4" plastic to do such as that. You will want to double the thickness where you attach your speakers, and yes go to a upholstery shop they can order the fabric and they might have the ABS too. Roddoors selle it to but there expensive. Hope this helps

oops sorry about that I use the 1/8"

I've seen where poeple are using whats called 'milk house panels' from farm supply stores, its about an 1/8" thick and comes in 4x8 panels. hope this helps.

I don't know if it's still available, but Brother's used to have a molded ABS filler panel that fit in that location. I saw this a few years back, so it may not be listed still.

roddoors
http://www.roddoors.com/
you can leave it plain or cover the abs panel

Dan, could you expand on "milk house panels"??
I have several Farm & Fleet stores nearby, never saw this material there, what does it look like, thick thin, wood, plastic??
I bought a couple of sheets of panel board from my local upholstry shop and he also showed me sheets of ABS but he said that it was a lot more expensive than the panel board, but could be formed with heat.
Denny Graham

I found sheets of that sort (ABS) at lowes in the paneling section, but it's only about 1/16" thick.

I tried our lowes here and they didn't have any abs. Guess I better look in the paneling section. Rod doors wants $199 for the cab panel. That is too much for me!!

It's a whole lot more work but Masonite might do ya. You can wet an 8-inch run across the measured piece where you want the bend ... put it on a table and secure it with some weights ... have the wetted area running along the edge of the table ... then put some weights on the end that's hanging over the table -- keep wetting it down and adding weight (gradually) until you have the bend you want and then let it dry. This will take hours.

Carpeting is usually used to cover this back area ... have you considered that?

Hey, Tom ... what kind of prices are to be considered decent for the 1/8" ABS? I've got some ideas for that stuff and will soon be wanting to experiment. You can shape it with a heat gun, right?

Denny, farm and fleet should carry it, around here we have fleet farm stores, its in the paneling section, its litely textured on on side and smooth on the back side. Its white in color and I,m guessing abs plastic, it bends fairly easy, I'm not real sure but i think it must be around a 1/8" or thinner. the guy that works here I know and he's used it on several projects.

Denny, the farm and fleet, and the fleet farm are actually owed by 2 brothers. one has fleet and the other owns farm and fleet

That white stuff sounds cool ... have you shaped it? What do you use ... a heat gun?

not yet Alan, the guy that works in the paneling section bent a piece of samples in a U shape to show me how flexible it is, hes used it on his projects so after seeing what he did with sample I figured I'll try it myself. Its priced about $32.00 a sheet. plan on getting some this week.

Thanks guys for all the good info. I used a material called bending birch . It is like a 2 ply plywood, 1/8 " thick and very flexible. I found it at a lumber yard for $32. I did wet the area to be bent and glued curved ribs to the outside of the bend, looks great.