I've got a bulk 4' x 10' sheet of diamond plate that I was originally going to use for the engine bay in my Karmann Ghia. Now since I got a Z I'm planning on making some diamond plate floor mats. Anyone know what would be good to cut this stuff with?

Oh and I'll probably have plenty left over so depending on how many I can cut out of this sheet I'll sell em at my cost because otherwise it's just going to get thrown away. I didn't buy the super shiny stuff. I bought one grade lower so it has more of a brushed aluminum look.

Jesse

 

If you want it too look good your going to need to get it water jet cut. I know this, because I sell diamond plate (the shiney stuff) floor mats and have been for 3 years. If you do it by hand you will need a jig saw and a REDIULOUS amount of patience and blades. Then you will need to grind the edges to death.

Just curious, why didnt you buy the shiney stuff?


www.extremespeedonline.com/sk if you wanna see some goodies.

 

wadds right, obvious, he is the metal man.

but I can say first hand I did some cutting of a diamond plate from home depot recently for my PC, and it was a PAIN. went through like 5 blades and I was just cutting a square, curves will be a major pain. and ever time you hit the raised part, hold on tight.

the edges arent too bad, but I donno if Id want them as a floor mat...

 

I was just watching American Chopper last night, and they used a cut-off wheel to cut out intricate shapes in diamond plate. If it's good enough for $150,000 chopper it's good enough to cut out your floor mats. No offense, but I personally wouldn't bother with spending the money on water jetting it.

 

Do you realize how long it would take me to cut LOGOS, intracate wording, and complex shapes with a cutting wheel? I do about 20sets of mats every 2 weeks. 90% of them have wording and logos which would be 100% impossible to do. Even if I could do it, I would need to go back with a dremmel and then get the nitty gritty out. Very labor intensive.

Its not terribly expensive to use a water jet if you rent by the hour. The results are very nice and the possibility for designs is infinite. Also, all my mats are stored on a cad file...... I just send in whatever cad file for that car and bam they are done. No skinned up knuckles for me.

Yup I saw that episode too That shape wasnt very difficult though.......and do you recall him saying he wasted all day on it?

 

I didn't get the shiny stuff because it was originally going in an old aircooled VW engine bay. I didn't want it to be too obnoxious so I thought I would tone it down a little. If this turns out to be too big a pain in the @ss, how much do you charge for floor mats?

It just seems a waste to not use this big sheet of diamond plate.

Jess

 

Oh, man, I wasn't implying that you should use one to cut yours out man. Just for a one off job, or where you are making just 1 or 2 sets. No, no, no, that would turn into your full time job to do all that by hand. I just meant that using a water-jet to do a one off thing would be overkill.