Hot Rods Whats Everyone Using For Template Material?

For those who make there own repair panels mostly floors, what are you's using for material to copy?
I've used cardboard boxes before but to me there to thick to work with. Cereal box material is to me the best type but to small and never enough boxes haha. I'm going to be doing floors and trunk pan in my 59 Plymouth soon and need to gather some stuff to start making templates.

 

Poster board


The hardboard(I think that’s the name) used to make interior panels works well. Will hold bend from a sheet metal brake. Makes nice pattern material.
The poster board can be sometimes found in larger sizes or rolls than from a regular store.
Corrugated cardboard sux for making accurate patterns in my worthless opinion

 

Back when I worked for a NASCAR team we used "oilboard" for templates. Rigid enough to hold it's shape, flexible enough to work.

 

Go to Hobby Lobby and check out their posterboard. Think they call it something else, and it costs a bunch more than regular walmart posterboard, but it's thick and stiff. Works for big patterns well.

 

Used to use the cardboard envelopes Rodder's Journal came in. Don't know what to use now, maybe cereal boxes.

 

Go to Sherwin Williams and buy the good, heavy duty brown paper that they use to cover and protect new hardwood floors during construction and move in. It's not expensive and it works great. One big roll will probably last you a lifetime. Don't buy the cheap flimsy stuff at Lowes and HD. It is not thicker than a brown paper bag. You want the thick stuff.

 

The white divider paper that comes in a gasket box to seperate the head gaskets

 

Poster board. You can paste two sheets together and double the thickness. I think the stuff for door panels is called chip board.

 

That’s exactly what I use, but I can’t recall the exact name. Seems like a sheet is 32”x40”. Around $4 per sheet.

 

Reminds me of a trip to Costco, was eyeballing a short stack of heavy cardboard on a cart used as product separators, was about to snatch them and saw a hand written sign that said DO NOT TAKE, Save For Frank............curses!

 

You need to find out who Frank is and strike a deal with him.

 

Builder`s board at Menards.

 

whatever is free....CVS closed in my neighborhood and i scored a big roll of photo paper...

 

You know the cardboard box your 24-30 can beverage come in? Masking tape on both sides will hold it together to make larger pieces. Its thick enough to hold a bend, and thin and easy enough to work with.

When I used to buy full 4' x 8' sheets of sheet metal delivered, they came wrapped with some great pattern making cardboard on both sides. Unfortunately, I've used nearly all of it up. I'm back to the beverage container boxes now.

Usually, there is only one part of an area that really needs a pattern, I measure out the non-critical part, then make a pattern for the areas I really need a pattern for.

 

Slip sheet paper .

it’s used in warehouses between boxes etc size of a skid almost 4’ x 4’

it’s the same as cereal box paper just much thicker , cuts and bends well and will hold a curve / shape .

 

Do you heat that in the microwave first so it sticks to whatever you're making a pattern of

 

The local farm feed store has heavy brown paper that they lay down on the wooden pallets before sacks are placed on them . It works well

 

Election posters in the past, nothing like cutting them up.
All the cereal boxes end up in the shed also, happy to tape them together for the bigger jobs.

 

Naw, I've usually chewed any pizza remnants off the cardboard before I use it

 

In another thread I was recommended to use heavy mil clear plastic. I've used all sorts of stuff in the past, ram board (cardboard floor stuff), posterboard, etc., and I've found the plastic to be super helpful for layout where holes and such need to be placed. Get yourself some good magnets and it makes life a breeze.

 

in the past ive used layered up masking tape for smaller areas, its good for holding the shape of a compound curved section too

 

Cool, I had been looking at it at Home depot and it looked pretty thick but there is a Sherwin Williams store across the street from Lowes in Onion Gultch that I go to every once in a while.

 

Posterboard, yes — not that I've done a lot of this. But I used stuff called Triplex, which is available in 1mm and 2mm thicknesses, and probably more though I never had occasion to use it, in up to A0 size (about 47"x33") for everything from architectural models to drawing presentations at architecture school. It's a soft beige cardboard between two layers of white cartridge paper; it cuts fairly easily with a craft knife; and we learned all kinds of tricks for forming neat corners and folds.

An approach I can see is to draw a template out in AutoCAD, have it plotted at 1:1 scale on whatever paper size, Photomount that to a sheet of Triplex, then trim out with a craft knife. The nice thing about proper Photomount is that nothing in it draws into the paper, causing the paper to swell and the drawing to gain scale. The trick is not to be stingy with the stuff. Cheaper off-brand stuff can be a crapshoot: I've had some cause ink to run.

With very large pages it is sometimes best to lay down a band of Photomount down the middle of the page and stick that down, then to spray successive bands as you roll the sides into place. Use a small rubber roller to get the paper flat, and perforate air bubbles with a craft knife.

 

Menards has the heavier stuff in wide (3' or better) rolls. I have to believe HD and Lowe's do as well.

 

Look at @ClutchDumpinDan ‘s thread of fixing a bad chop, or maybe he’ll chime it on what he uses and why.

 

Pizza boxes are traditional as it gets. During the stock car days, we ate a ton of pizza. We always had a few boxes around if they were clean enough.

 

Dollar tree poster board, two pieces for a buck.

 

10 point chipboard.
We own a flatbed diecutting company. We usually have a few skids of 24” x 54 “ chipboard on hand.