Interior Panels

[MrSchaeferPants]

Lots of threads about making/needing the rear interior panels. People talking about making them outa plywood, or aluminum, diamond plate and such. Any companies out there who makes them? Makes them outa some kinda hard plastic like a PVC sheet or something? Is that something people would be interested in, premade thick hard plastic panels? Possibly premade panels with holes cut-out for speakers. Or a CNCd aluminum/diamond plate/steel panel with storage? Could possibly paint/dye the hard plastic, or wrap it in cloth or vinyl or something. Is there a market for this? Or something everyone would say is awesome, but only 1 out of 50 would actually buy.

Just thinking. I've been part of many many auto forums, for a variety of makes/models. And there's always a market for the obscure, the same things people always wonder why there isn't a product line for, that 'everyone would buy'.
Kinda my opinion like how diy4x is. But a different product line than them. Great company, everyone loves there stuff, and all thier stuff is awesome. But they do all metal. What about interior stuff? Who'd like a headliner console thing like the suburbans or newer cars/vans with storage, map lights and the like, or complete modern door panels with room for speakers? Center consoles that go all the way to the dash and encompases the xfer case shifter, ya there's kick panel speaker boxes. Low cost, high quality center console almost factory, but with ROUND cup holders, maybe something else. Maybe an aftermarket hard plastic or fiberglass removable top with storage, speakers, lights.

The interior section being dead, and inebriation setting in, makes me wonder how hard would it be to create something like this?

 

[shady]

The interior stuff is a good idea but NOBODY makes a replacement hard top for first gen or full convert second gen k5's. My kids top is crap and it'll be more expensive to fix it probably than to get a soft top. I searched for about a month during my free time at work ( I get alot of that) and could find nothing online. If a good one was found and a mold made of it a lot of money could probably be made. But if it turned out to cost 3000 to make one

 

[ryoken]

got the coin to create injection molds?

easier said than done... otherwise my dash would have been in production yrs ago...

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

The interior stuff is a good idea but NOBODY makes a replacement hard top for first gen or full convert second gen k5's. My kids top is crap and it'll be more expensive to fix it probably than to get a soft top. I searched for about a month during my free time at work ( I get alot of that) and could find nothing online. If a good one was found and a mold made of it a lot of money could probably be made. But if it turned out to cost 3000 to make one

True, I always wonder how much it costs to make these things per how much the product costs. Reproduction tops would be awesome, but what to make them out of? Plastic/ABS, Fiberglass, Carbon Fiber, Kevlar? Lightweight or Durable? Use stock windows, or aftermarket?

got the coin to create injection molds? easier said than done... otherwise my dash would have been in production yrs ago...

Ya would be easier if I would already be in that industry and decided to branch off to do my own thing. Could always start off small, then if business is good expand. Making those rear panels wouldn't have too much upfront cost, wouldn't NEED to do something like injection mold it being a flat panel, sheet of some kinda plastic abs stuff and mill the plastic, with a homemade jig could work, or at least would be a start for the 'rough draft'.

Thinking about this stuff cause in about a year I'll be comming back from yet another deployment, but as a civillian this time, and I'll have a bit of money laying around, and the houses my GF and I are looking at have some pretty big workshops on the property. Could be something to start off as a 'hobby' in a sense.

 

[ryoken]

when i was checking into having a mold made for my dash to do injection molding, it was mucho coin... talking 20, 30 grand... thus why eventually i'll just do my own mold and handlay up glass... one of these years...

the rear panels are just stupid simple... it's really just a material choice... personally, i think the composite i used for mine is the best you could ever use... far superior to any plastic type product.. biggest issue being my panels are about $200 in material.. not many wanna spend that coin, let alone what i'd have to charge for a pair...

 

[JBerno]

My panels were screwed up on my 72 and I did not have the money to pony up for new"original" ones so I tried my hand at fiberglass, here are some photos of my first attemp. Problem is that once I finished these ones I said to myself "self, now that you did these and learned on them I know you can build some kick ass ones". This is why I call them my first attemp, I have some other ideas to make a set that will outshine these ones.

 

[JBerno]

more pictures

 

[JBerno]

Using what I learned on here I built my side panels out of 1/2 MDF, I routered the top down so that it fit inside the chrome strip at the top. I then cut the donuts for the Sub woofers and the 6-1/2" speakers, I cut some pieces of wood and raised the donuts onto the "stilts" at the angle that I wanted them. I stretched an old bed sheet over them and glued it to the wood to give me the form that I wanted, basically I have them in a raised cone type scenario. I then "painted" them with some fiberglass resin. Once that got hard I started applying the actual fiberglass mesh and resin, I did 2 layers of this, then I did some sanding on them and then went over them with some car bondo to get then smooth and more finished.
I painted the black side with some bed liner paint, I wanted to see how they would look with that as a final coating, they look pretty good with this coating and you do not have to get your sanding perfect. I have not done the final coat on the passengers side yet, it was about this time that I really got the wheels turning and figured I would roll with these as a "temporary" deal until I had time to build some cleaner ones.
I want to build some new ones, where I really take my time on them, I do not want to use the chrome strip on the new ones, I think they will look pretty clean taking them to a paint shop somewhere and having the shot with a nice Black color, nice and smooth

Sorry for the crappy write up, I am not used to telling anyone how I did something, usually I am on the receiving end of advise with these things

 

[Mav2u]

Looks cool! This is what I was thinking about doing with mine. I was going to flush the sub a little more and the rear passenger speakers a bit more than what you built them out on your design.

I wanted to dead mat the fender walls completely behind my speakers, build the fiberglass to hold a sub on the passenger side behind the spare tire and put the amps mounted on the spare tire as I have them now with a circle board of plywood carpeted.

Then put a set of 6" and Tweeters in the passenger area where yours are and maybe a 8" mid bass drivers. Then cover the setup in a matching vinyl or maybe leather.

Looking forward to your second build up. Take more pics of the build up process on the second one. We are all picture whores here!

 

[JBerno]

I always thought about the pictures after the fact. I am thinking about putting charging ports for a cell phone on each side. Also my wifes van has a cupholder in the console that is flush mounted, you push on it and it springs out to hold your drink, I am thinking about something like that as well on the new build, one on each side.