Lately i have been thinking about doing something different. What about building a hardwood floor in the back of the mini. Completly hot rod truck style. If you would figure out how to do it so that it doesnt weigh to much, it could be kinda cool i think...anybody else thought about this?
it would be sort of like the entire rear deck carbonized made, but with hard wood.
looking something similar to this

http://image.classictrucks.com/f/122...m_wood_bed.jpg

 

maybe with like black wood.. or black stained wood... regular stained wood seems so out of place.

and yeah, its going to be heavy.

 

Working on it as we speak. I don't recommend using expandable foam from home depot though. Huge PITA! If I was staring over I would build a skeleton out of wood or aluminus 2x4 and lay the wood over it. When ever I actually finish it I will post picks up.

 

This is weird. I've had the same idea floating around in my head for a while now. With the old pick up truck beds in mind. I wondered around Lowes last week looking at different materials. First the hardwood flooring material seemed too thick and heavy. They did have nice sheets of very thin wood that would work, I was thinking of making a brace out of two stringers carved to match the floor contours then mating it to a thin sheet of wood. I couldn't find the right kind of metal strips there though. I did google some pick up bed kits, but again the way they are made would be too heavy. The metal bits are basically T shaped, and I would like to find some that are flat on the bottom. Another interesting material I found there was a punched sheet of 4'x4' aluminum with a Union Jack pattern.

 

yes black wood would be awesome..
I've been wanting to do this for a while now.

xnotfunkylex
, yes that expandable foam always seem to be a good idea.. untill you start working with it haha.

Maybe you can help me with mine... i just have to decide exactly how i want to do this... IE storage etc.

Jahmills,

yes i was looking around too. anot of wood is to heavy, but i think i know the thing sheets your talking about. that would be pretty nice.
I have a friend who could spray the wood with auto clear, so it woul dbe extremly durable. haha he actually did his kitchen cabinets with auto clear.. and yes he waxed them with mothers auto wax haha.

 

I think i would almost look into a deep blue stain, since my carpet and seats are blue...
hmmmm

 

cool site...
http://www.bedwoodandparts.com/Content/Home.aspx

 

This is pretty cool, we both have the same idea. I've had my rear seats removed for a couple of years now. My complete vision for it is to do the floor, create a mount in the middle for my full size spare tire, and finally remove the rear seat belts, and then cover the plastic side panels in a black diamond stitched vinyl, sort of like the headliner in this pic.

 

As a long time woodworker, real hardwood is going to be very heavy, as it's very dense. What about real wood veneer over a core of lighter glass fiber or the like. => very light and old school.
Wood veneer is about 1mm thick or less (the best stuff). My father collected many samples--rosewood, walnut, Australian exotics,... any would look good depending on your interior color scheme.

 

thats a good idea.
i had thought about that. veneer that is..
hmm i like where this is going.

and yeah the dimond stitched side panels are going to look great!
-Malcon

 

Well yeah, it's got to be thin over a light, synthetic base material. But ideally still in plank form instead of the thin, solid sheets I found. Still stumped on where to source the right kind of metal strips though.

 

same here...i would really like to have aluminum.. not chrome.. but i would prefer to be able to paint the strips body color possible...
It would be nice to be able to maybe have a base. then put the stips and the wood material on that.. so that it would be solid.... i dont know if that makes any kind of sence...

any of you guys going to the dragon? this could be a great brain storming session.. with a couple drinks at the BrewSwap...haha

 

No, no Dragon for me this year. I do like that idea of painting the strips body color though. As for the veneer, I don't know if would hold up to the abuse of a cargo floor, I was thinking about something about a 1/4 inch thick or a little thinner. I'll update on this thread though for whatever I work out. It's going to be my spring project.

 

this stuff seems to be pretty light, my father inlaw installed it in his house and it wasn't that heavy, its fake wood and pretty durable, just gotta rig a base and figure out the metal strips

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/cat...125fe154e8d572

 

yeah thats interesting. nice material...
I would really like to be able to stain the wood a custom color..
I'm thinking i'm going to end up going with a thin sheet of wood and just cutting it up.

Build a base...over lay the wood on top, with the strips...

i think the hard part for this will be finding the strips to use...

oh and ,yes i do think i have a spring project also. haha