Substitute body mount material??

I'm getting ready to mount the body back on the frame of my 53' Ford. The body mount kit is around $150, which seems a bit high for some rubber and bolts. The bolts are easy. Any ideas for what I should use for the mount part? The old rubber mounts had a cloth like material sandwiched in them. Any idea's where to get this stuff? Thanks!

 

Some people on a budget use Hockey pucks.

 

Belting material from conveyor belts. My dad was a millwright and that was his source. Not sure were to get it now, but I've never needed to find any. Web-on my friend.

 

a hole saw and old tire sidewalls, hockey pucks, or a "used" body lift kit for a pickup can usually be had cheap, cut to fit.

 

Hole saw and one of those cheap plastic kitchen cutting boards.

 

I used conveyer belt in mine seems ok and you add as you go for height differences

 

I use Truck Mud Flaps. They are made of cloth-embedded rubber. They cut fairly easily with a band saw, jigsaw or reciprocating saw and can be made to fit by stacking multiple pieces. If you look on the highway you’ll see them or pony up for on at the Truck stop. Maybe a truck repair station near you has some that have been damaged where they attach that can still be salvaged for your use. Good luck.

L_N_A

 

I use a big pickup truck rubber bed mat. I got it at a swap meet for $5. It's big (4'x8' or so), and the material is some kind of strand-impregnated rubber. I've made mounting pads for stuff, some nice mudflaps for my Suburban, a rear floor liner for my Jeep, lots of stuff.

Good luck,
Pete

 

I am with Pete I have an old bed mat out of a truck and I have used it for body mounts and other stuff and it works great if you use a hole saw to cut it sometimes to have to run the hole saw backwards it seems to cut better mostly when you get to the strings that are imbedded in it.Good luck

 

i never thought about the tires, great idea

 

Yeah, big rig truck mud flaps have nylon cord impregnated in them. Sometimes there are guys selling remnants of that tough conveyor belt material at swap meets. And if you just want to buy some good rubber with nylon cord in it, McMaster-Carr sells it by the square foot in different thicknesses.

To cut clean 1/2" holes for the body mount holes, I use a piece of brass tubing that I filed the edge like a blade and spin it in a drill press. It makes really clean round holes. You just have to stop and poke the plugs of rubber out of the brass tube before you cut the next hole.

You can use the rubber to make body mounting pads, muffler straps, radiator mounting pads, and pads to put on your floor jacks and jack stands so that they won't scratch up the bottom of your frame.

 

Go to your local Fire Department, and see what they have in the way of fire hose that has leaks, or doesn't pass the annual pressure test... fabric on the outside, rubber on the inside, (or cut it open and turn it inside out, for a reverse of that) and damned near indestructible.....