Just about to have my first gen runner up and going for the first time in 6 years. The weather have wreaked havok on the panels. Looked into diamond plate, but I'm not sure that I want to spend that much just to make panels. Any ideas or vendors selling panels that won't put me in the poorhouse?
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I’m not 100% on this, but I’d bet any vendors selling reasonable panels are going to want way more than the cost of a sheet of checker plate.
I made back seat panels out of thin plywood. I plan on making rear quarter panels at some point. Right now they are just painted. I plan on covering them at some point.
Sheet metal would work. Durability would depend on what kind of load you put up against it. I used aluminum to replace the busted out side panels behind the seats in my X-cab. Used pop rivets to install them. No problems in the last 20 years.
I installed rivet nuts so the panels can be easily removed when I get ready to cover them.
Drilling out rivets takes less time than undoing a screw (or at least the same time) so I wouldn’t overthink it too much. If you can stand the shine, 1/8” checker is probably a good route to take as it’s A: light, B: rustproof, C: increadibly duarble, D: easy to cut with a jigsaw, and E: relatively cheap as you won’t have to cover it with something, or paint it. Time IS money!
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There's a guy in Phoenix selling all sorts of Toyota interior stuff. I saw he had some clean 4Runner panels for sale.
I can shoot you his number in a PM if you want.
I can shoot you his number in a PM if you want.
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please do! Thanks man.
I had several ideas on my mind for these. With the goal to get my 4runner as light as possible, I wanted to do all carbon fiber panels along with a black interior conversion. Thinking about all the time it would have taken to lay up panels and vacuum bag them on a large flat glass surface I decided that was a stupid idea for an old truck.
Then I thought I’d do aluminum but have since settled on ABS. A sheet of abs is about half the weight of aluminum, one side is already textured so coating it isn’t an issue, and it’s fairly easy to work with.
I’ve been drawing the panels in solidworks and have access to a CNC router, but they want materials of at least 3/8s thick since they don’t have a vacuum hold down table. I’m going to try and work around that in the next several months.
Then I thought I’d do aluminum but have since settled on ABS. A sheet of abs is about half the weight of aluminum, one side is already textured so coating it isn’t an issue, and it’s fairly easy to work with.
I’ve been drawing the panels in solidworks and have access to a CNC router, but they want materials of at least 3/8s thick since they don’t have a vacuum hold down table. I’m going to try and work around that in the next several months.