question Mill Board

[woa2]

I am trying to make up some panels in my car, and they are made of Mill Board. The panels are the sound proofing under the dashboard. How do I get a good right angle bend in this stuff without it breaking? Anybody used Mill Board with any success?

[Gordon_M]

I use the black plastic faced mill board all the time, and it is great stuff. I've made headliners, firewall liner panels, glove boxes, and kick panels out of it with very little problem.

 

I've never actually done it deliberately, but the way to form it severely is just to get it damp. I stored a couple of sheets in a damp garage and you could virtually tie knots in it after a year or so.

 

Once you have formed it, you either need to keep it dry, or if you are using it in large unsupported areas you need to provide some support or pinning to keep it in shape. When I get round to making another truck headliner out of it I'll get it in place and then stick some polyurethane builders foam between it and the metal roof panel, which is about a 3" void on my Dodges.

[N.O.S.]

Sounds interesting - with your experiencde of using this material, do you think it is feasible to make up a roof lining for a closed cab GMC? Curves both ways!

[Gordon_M]

Sounds interesting - with your experiencde of using this material, do you think it is feasible to make up a roof lining for a closed cab GMC? Curves both ways!

 

It will double curve within limits. If damp it'll probably double curve even more. My hard cab Dodge headliners were for pickup, Carryall, and van, and the pickup headliner was pretty similar to the GMC / Chev cab version I think.

 

One restriction is that the sheets tend to be fractionally too small to do a complet headliner in one sheet, but when I found details of the original Dodge one it had been done in sections too, so no problem.

 

Segal's of Preston, 1/8" black plastic faced mill board - that's the stuff.

 

Gordon

[N.O.S.]

Many thanks Gordon. Might give it a try if I'm feeling brave!!

[Stefano]

I am trying to make up some panels in my car, and they are made of Mill Board. The panels are the sound proofing under the dashboard. How do I get a good right angle bend in this stuff without it breaking? Anybody used Mill Board with any success?

 

I've got a couple of old Mercedes-Benz's that use a black grained millboard as an under dash finisher. In these, the creases for the right angled folds seem to have been made with a knife press or something similar, obviously without actually cutting through the board. In the 280SL these are just left as they are, whereas in my 300 the folds are backed with linen tape. You wouldn't really want to dampen the millboard much, because you'd never get a sharp crease that way, and the wretched stuff has a habit of delaminating as soon as you look at it