chequer plate

[Gilbert v H]

I am looking for chequer plate (or a cheap source). I need enough to cover the loading area (rear seats folded) and lower tailgate of an 80.
Preferably I'd like black plate.

Cheers
Gilbert

 

[Chris]

Thickness? Material? :confusion-scratchheadyellow: I don't think any of them come in a black finish particularly. There are also resin boards that would do a good job.

Chris

 

[Gav Peter]

I think you'd be looking for 'aloominum' 5-bar tread plate but when I source this for work stuff, as Chris points out, it generally comes 'self colour' - you'd have to paint in or get it anodised yourself once you'd welded it up to the shape you wanted as (at the risk of teaching you to suck eggs) any surface finish will (probably) need to be removed to weld it successfully...

You could look for a supplier like Aalco for this sort of product - they are a nationwide bunch.

 

[Gilbert v H]

If never worked with it, but I saw black plate on defenders and though I could buy it that way. The coulour is not really important though.
Material I'd prefer aluminium to safe some weight ad prevent surface rust when scratched. As to thickness, what would you think should I use?
It's just meant to cover the floor and protec it if I transport building material.

 

[Chris]

Tricky question Gilbert. It depends on how it fastened down etc. 1mm is pretty thin, but if it was formed and welded into a tub and bolted in it would work. Or you could make a plywood shape and then attach the sheet to it. If you went for 3mm, it would start to get pretty expensive and harder to work with yourself. But would be self supporting in a sheet, if you follow. So I suppose that 2mm would be about right. You could have a tub shape powder coated which would be very smart. Tread plate has some additional strength because of the raised pattern on it, but it can actually look a bit much in one large sheet, plus it's a devil to clean actually. I really fancy one of the phenolic resin type material myself. Metal sheet is quite harsh and quite damaging to whatever rolls around in there.

C

 

[Chas]

I managed to get hold of a piece of the stuff they use for the galley areas on British Airways aircraft to cover the top of my rear drawer storage. It's some sort of black rubbery linoleum with slightly raised small circles of non-slip bits that help to stop things sliding about. You could probably get something similar in a carpet store.
Chas

 

[Derek J]

I was looking at options for my 62 and having owned a hilux with a plated back I am leaning towards a sprayed on product by a specialist or same idea but DIY.

The hilux looked good for a day then looked really tatty.

I was quoted around £200 to do the complete interior of mine. The diy stuff is around £100 for same area. An added bonus is that it is non slip and will help stop everything sliding when you brake.

 

[Gav Peter]

You wouldn't need anything too heavy really so long as its all evenly supported underneath with some underlay as I think you mentioned elsewhere. Just looking on the Aalco website, it starts at 2mm thick & goes up to 6mm thick...

Link to datasheet

Just be aware that the 5-bar tread plate pattern is designed to be grippy for people to walk on without slipping & as such, you'd be surprised how sharp some of the raised edges are... Try kneeling on it - it hurts if you catch it wrong!!! If you are using it to carry bags of cement etc, I could see it slitting the bag if you slid it across that stuff...

I personally wouldn't use it for a liner... I'd just use plain sheet or go for a timber product as Chris suggests above - either one would be easier to 'slide' stuff in & out of the truck with IMHO...

A final word - from my understanding, aluminium welding is also quite an art form - it requires much more heat to get it stuck together than steel...

All that said - looking forward to seeing what you come up with

Wrote this whilst the other posts were arriving BTW ;-)

 

[Gilbert v H]

I was looking at options for my 62 and having owned a hilux with a plated back I am leaning towards a sprayed on product by a specialist or same idea but DIY.

The hilux looked good for a day then looked really tatty.

I was quoted around £200 to do the complete interior of mine. The diy stuff is around £100 for same area. An added bonus is that it is non slip and will help stop everything sliding when you brake.

I was looking into that myself, but you cant spray that on those bitumen mats, or any other sort of noise reduction material. having bare metal inside would be to loud for me, especially when you drive offroad and have the stones flying against the underbody.

@chris: have you got a link to this resin board, never heard of it.

I was going to go for treaded plate and fix it to the floor with the bolts which are already there (rear seat fixingsetc.).
I am going to make a ply jig first anyway and maybe can use that as Chris suggested with thinner metal.
Saying that ply could be used on its own, just is not good when transporting wet or oily things, so I'd need some fluid resitant wood product.

@Galvad: I was not going to weld anything. Ideally I would like one plate which is bolted onto the floor. But after all the suggestions her, I'll see what kind of wood could be used as an alternative.

 

[Derek J]

They tell me that it has great noise reducing properties and salesmen never lie.

The diy stuff would stick to wbp ply and that would be easy to cut to shape.

I use the resin board for trailer floors so it is very strong.

 

[Ecky Thump]

The resin board is the stuff in coach side lockers and boots.
Over the years I have had everything from luggage, sets of golf clubs through to boy sprouts camping gear in the coaches.
It never seems to scratch and is really easy to clean.

 

[Gav Peter]

Sorry to pick up your typo there Les... Boy Sprouts!!! I'm sure they do!!! ROTFLMFAO!!!!!

 

[Chris]

Gilbert no I don't have a link. Someone did once on the other side. I wanted to have a look for it. It was like flat Lego bricks. It's for the bottom of horse trailers so it will withstand all sorts of @34t and p*$$ plus blooming great clip-clops standing on it. I want some for my trailer bed. It wasn't expensive. I think there was smooth too. I'd go for smooth I reckon. I'll see what a Google comes up with.

C

Gav AL welding is a bit of a tricky one yes. It's the wire feed speed that is high. Al melts at about 550 whereas steel is around 1200 degrees. With the wire being soft, it's very hard to push it up the mig torch without it snarling. So you need a special spool torch. Not easy to master.