ute tray

[Papa Smurf]

What is wood is best/most used for the ute tray wooden floor, have a piece of 12mm mdf which I intended to use but advised against it.

[FC427]

Ply wood or if your cashed up Marine Ply but seal it on both sides so it lasts......FC427.......

[Papa Smurf]

Yeah - now thinking maybe 9mm ply & 3mm masonite on top, the hardest part will be alingning the freaking holes in the cross members etc, I'm also open to suggestions for that fun bit - dont have the old floor to use as a template.
FC427 what would you suggest as a sealer

[pedro]

Mdf is for indoor use only, the slightest trace of moisture and it swells to twice its thickness and turns to mush, masonite isn't much better, ute floors get a lot of weather and hard knocks, FC427 is right you're better off spending a little bit more in the first place, use marine ply and seal it well and it will last for years, use the cheap stuff and it will cost twice as much as you will be re doing it before too long 8).

[FC427]

To seal it up on a budget bondcrete thinned out so it soaks right in works well and then you can colour fleck over the top face or if you are going to leave the ply finish just a good Marine Clear  ......FC427 

[Papa Smurf]

Cheers Guys - don't anticipate the Ute will be out in the weather at all but just to be sure, to be sure !! - plan on painting it Mundi Brown colour as per factory

the hardest part will be alingning the freaking holes in the cross members etc, I'm also open to suggestions for that fun bit - dont have the old floor to use as a template.

[pedro]

Also use gal or stainless screws, use sealer in the holes as well and you won't have to worry about it for years 8).

[Trevor_B]

I used 6mm marine ply then 1.6mm Ally chequer plate for a neat look.
Screwed the marine ply down then siliconed on the aluminium including sealing around edge.

I think it looks neat (but that's just my opinion  :))
Trevor_B

[FB_Ute]

Lizard, re how to know where to drill the holes - we cut up overhead projector foils and taped them securely into 2 long strips 4" wide and long enough to reach from side to side across the tray area.  We picked 2 cross beams to work with - the one over the petrol tank, and the one just back from the cabin.  For each plastic strip, we taped one side of it securely to the tray floor, draped it over the cross member and then marked its position carefully on the other side of the tray floor.  We marked the hole positions in the plastic using a hole punch.  That gave us a template for the holes.  We then lifted the unattached side of the template, put the wood down and laid the template back over it, aligning the template to the marks we'd made on the tray floor.  Then we marked hole positions in the wood again with a hole punch.  Once we had each of the 6 metal straps screwed in with 2 screws, we used the holes in the metal straps as the guide for the remaining screws/bolts.   Hope this helps.  And, for what it's worth, we used 12mm marine ply.

Cheers .... jacquie