I want to remake my boot area rear cover, at the moment it’s plywood with vinyl covering it – It looks great but the vinyl has stained where I’ve spilled fuel on it. I was planning on remaking it but instead of covering it in vinyl I was going to seal the ply then paint it with textured truck liner paint. I’ve used this paint on the floor and its hard wearing and I like the finish.

Question is – is there an alternative to using ply? A piece of 12mm ply is quite weighty and if there’s an alternative I could achieve the same with that’s lighter that would be great. Its non-structural so doesn’t need to be particularly strong but it needs to be 12+mm thick so I can router the edges. A thin sheet of aluminium wouldn't work.

I’m quite happy to use ply as it's not a race car – but just thought I’d throw the question out there anyway in case there is some nice light product I’m unawares of!

Alucore sheets?

or other sandwich panels:




[Edited on 27/7/18 by Bluemoon]

I used a foamed PVC rigid sheeting that is about 4.5mm thick It is commonly used in signmaking (NOT Correx) Easy to cut either with saw or router and can be rounded neatly on the edge. I have used it for the rear deck and also side interior panels.

The foamed PVC sheet sounds interesting, have you got any brand names or links?

I need the thickness to give a nice edge so sadly the alucore wouldn't be suitable. Never seen that before though and could be useful for other things so thanks for the input.

As Bluemoon suggested - dry freight commercial vehicles typically use a lightweight composite panel made up of GRP and a honeycomb core, which would probably suit the job at hand. Most panels that enter the UK are from French companies Polyfont or Carlier Plastique, which will have UK agents - maybe see if they've got an offcut or old door piece that you could use?

I used a sheet of ABS with a carbon effect finish from Plays-kool motorsport.

[Edited on 27/7/18 by big-vee-twin]

4mm piece of ply with thick edges glued on and routered? Loose most of the weight...

How about something like kingspan or celotex, or other foam boards like underfloor heating board, that's available in 10mm thickness

Some great suggestions, think i might try a few samples from the suggestions above. I like the kingspan idea, i wonder if there is anything i could coat it with to make it a little more durable

Trent Plastics in Gainsborough for Foamex. Or if your near Lincoln I'll give you some.

quote:

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Originally posted by Daf
Some great suggestions, think i might try a few samples from the suggestions above. I like the kingspan idea, i wonder if there is anything i could coat it with to make it a little more durable

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Use your present panels as a hammerform to make new ally panels?