Hey guys, I've got a question. I've got good carpentry and construction skills, and a 05 F150 supercab. Thinkin about making a hard tonneau cover. Anyone ever do this, or have any ideas/suggestions? I'm thinking about using MDO, which is a smooth sided exterior grade plywood I've used in the past for signs.

 

Just so long as it doesn't look like this!

 

A friend of mine worked for an aluminum extruding company and made rails out of aluminum and a hard shell out of the same material you are talking about and covered it with some cheap black Naugahyde (sp?). He used foam to seal the aluminum railing to the inside lip of the bed and the wood cover fit flush inside the bed supported by the aluminum railing. It looked good and he could tilt it up with gas lifts. I think it cost him about $100 in materials and looked darn good.

 

I was just wanting a regular one for my truck....

 

LMAO...

I have seen far too many home made covers / shells on $40,000 trucks in my lifetime. Granted, given if you have the skill set and time to invest in the project to do it well, the savings can be significant. However, very few homemade covers complement the lines of the truck or seal good enough to to be functional. For around $1,000 you can get a very good quality fibreglass hard cover, painted to match your truck. I think I paid $1,200 CDN for mine, which is 3 years old, and it looks and functions as good as the day I bought it.

Just my $0.02, however I would love to see a photo of what you come up with, which may be superior to what I have.


Doug

 

If it must be a hard shell, then go for it. If a soft cover is okay, then I have to tell you about the deal I got on mine. It's a LeBra soft tonneau I got from Walmart for 99 bucks. Installed in 30 minutes.

As to the hard tonneau, I have a friend who made his own from 3/4" plywood, (way overkill, and heavy) and glued black vinyl to his, and made it a flush mount on his 79 F 150. Looked real slick.

 

there's a couple pics of mine posted earlier this month - look at https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...-progress.html