patel_anu

just wondering if anyone has, i tried to search but didn't come up with anything...i'd rather try to make them myself than spend 150 bucks on them...if so, what kind of material did you use? thanks

anu

98BlaximaSE

All you need is home depot and a dremel.

patel_anu

thanks, do you know what the material's called?

98BlaximaSE

Not really, diamond plated sheet metal?? I hear its not all too good. Slippery when wet and stuff like that.

metallic97gxe

iTrader: (3)

you can get sheets of it off of ebay but how are you going to cut it....?





http://search.ebay.com/search/search...Sort&catref=C1

Conrad283

iTrader: (2)

i think it's a good idea, i might try it

Aaron

iTrader: (4)

I could cut it and bend it here.

We use daimond plate up to .125 inch thick........for special projects

For a clean professional cut and bend you would need at least a foot shear (providing its not to thick... .063 or so....)

and a bending machine

blizz20oma

iTrader: (1)

Just call Jesse James....

I swear, they've used diamond plating on like, every monster garage show. They usually cut it with a big farkin table-saw-lookin piece of eq.

I mean, I know the dremel is mighty, but...

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

Sure you can make them yourself. You're going to need 2 of those sheets they sell on eBay. Or you can go to Lowes where it's $59.99 for a 2x4 sheet.

Don't even think about cutting them with a dremel. Not only will it take about 50 cutting wheels to do a full set, you will not make any cuts remotely straight. Plus you're likely to damage the chrome finish.

You can cut it with a table saw and jigsaw with metal blades. But the cutting is going to take several hours after you've made all the meaurements (sparks will be flying the whole time). And drilling that hole for the driver's side peg is going to give you some issues. Also, the saws don't cut this material that smoothly, the raised diamonds lead to uneven edges. So you're looking at a couple of hours worth of filing and sanding the edges decently.

.063" is the best thickness to use. And you don't need a machine to bend it.

So you're looking at anywhere from $66 - $120 in materials depending on where you go. And probably 8 hours of your time. Plus some new blades for your saw, you want to cut with a fresh blade or the edge will not be clean.

If you factor in everything, you're not going to save that much. And if you screw up once, and have to get a new sheet of material, then there are no savings. We're not making these mats for $15 and just marking them up 1000%, they cost us a good bit to make too and we have a shop dedicated to this stuff. All the info I posted earlier was based on several customers of ours who originally made their own diamond plate mats and in the end bought them from us.

hokiemax

iTrader: (2)

I think he is right. In this case, its better to buy. Before the clear side markers for 5th gens came out, my brother made his own. From 50 feet away, it looked good. The closer you got, it was apparent this thing was homemade. lol.

Slither

I tried to make a set, and they looked really good. But when racing, they fell out the bottom of the car when I hit the "happy gas" button :-P
Am I the only person on this site that just see's diamond plate floormats as 50lbs of pure garbage?

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

They weigh 6 lbs. But I digress.

This is not directed toward you, but just so everyone knows, we've been doing the diamond plate well before that damn movie came out. My business partner brought the concept here from Europe almost 5 years ago. Now there are quite a few shops copying the mats, but what can you do. And that movie has brought nothing but annoyances. What used to be a unique and distinctive product was almost reduced to the level of NAWSSS and ugly wings.

Right after that movie came out, all we ever got calls about were people wondering if we could replicate that floor for them. Thankfully, the calls have subsided and people are starting to forget that one little 5sec. scene in the movie.

So to recap, the mats were not based on that movie. We've been successfully selling them for quite some time now. And not everybody likes them, but enough do to pay my bills.

Conrad283

iTrader: (2)

i think they look pretty nifty

96BLUMAX

iTrader: (3)

Yeah i wish i knew how you make em.