The interior of the cab came with door panels and flimsy rear quarter panels… so I was pretty lucky. I will be replacing them all with custom panels to help with sound, aesthetic and audio placement. This will be another ongoing page and will cover the headliner (eventually), back of cab and rear quarter panels. The door will be more of an undertaking and covered in another post.
It looks as though there is some sort of panel that was created for the rear of the truck per the TM… I wasn’t fortunate enough to get one of these panels as a template.
Rear of Cab
I started with the back of the cab which I decided to cut into three pieces to make it easier to place in the cab. This was a full day of work an measuring to just get these cut the way I wanted them with the holes drilled and threaded eyelets placed accordingly. Here is what I suggest to get these in and make them match the curve of the cab (which is the hardest part.
My overall size is 79Wx46.5 tall. The cab is taller but I’ve had a header fabricated to work with the angle of the cab where it slants into the ceiling. Using 3/16 masonite will bend to the curve but I wanted to design a metal header all the way around because of bumps, holes and curves. The way I got the curve of the cab was to measure every three inches from the floor or the cab and mark the metal on both sides… Then measure across and record each of those measurements.
To install them you’ll need to figure out where all the metal “studs” are. I just transferred the info onto the front of the board. If you do each panel one at a time you can see where they line up for the most part. Then I drilled pilot holes so I knew where to put my threaded inserts for application. The liner material on the back of the cab will have to be grinded down before the threaded inserts will take, they require sheet metal and not anything much thicker.
I found some material online to cover the masonite but left the center section because I am waiting on some audio equipment. The material itself I am pleased with, it is pretty thick and has a little bit of stretch to it. I used 3M 90 High Strength Adhesive to adhere the cloth, you can pick this up at Home Depot. You can see the gaps between the panels to allow for material.
The last piece was the header. I had some steel bent and then powder-coated but it could just as easily have been another piece of wood or a the same panel only taller. I just really needed something that I could fasten the headliner and molle rack at a later date.
Rear Quarter Panels
I’m keeping it simple and just putting a few 7.5 JL audio speakers in the rear quarters. If you want more bass out of it you can easily go bigger, just watch your depth. I wanted something pretty discrete and since behind the seat is storage I placed the speakers high and to the front of the driver and passenger. These will be next to the seat so they will be somewhat protected.
I actually cut these out several times, initially I cut this out of half inch material (above), then went back and did I out of 3/4 to cover the thickness of the handles (below). The photo below sucks but you can see how it came together.
builtmfg.com 