(We used screen captures from Project Binky videos to show their use of cardboard aided drafting as examples.) Car builders often joke about using CAD, Cardboard Aided Design, to build hot rods, muscle cars, trucks, and more. But it’s no laughing matter. The truth is, unless you have some incredibly bitchin high tech machines there really isn’t an easier, or more accurate, way to create custom parts from metal than by using a template. Builders often use paper, or thin cardboard to make patch panels for sheetmetal. But they also use cardboard (or chipboard) for making 3-D brackets, boxes, and parts so that they can fit them into the vehicle just like the real metal part will. Then, by flattening out the cardboard template you can lay it out onto your material and cut it into just the right shape. With some bending and fiddling, you can end up with the exact same part made out of metal ready to weld or bolt onto your project.

This is especially handy when building something that an off the shelf part doesn’t exist for. Or when trying to make something that is more custom than you can buy. Don’t get me wrong, there are thousands more ready to buy fabrication parts on the market today than even 10 years ago. And those will work for many builds, but not all of them. Take Cole’s Chevy LUV truck project that we are about to start welding tubing for. That sucker is going to have so many little brackets and fillers, none of which are available from the aftermarket, that we’ll be making them ourselves in almost every case.

But what to use for templates has always been a challenge. Chip board is commonly used, but expensive and sometimes hard to find. Poster board from the arts and crafts store works, but depends on the thickness available, and is also not cheap. So you can imagine just how excited I was when the Fab Forums posted the video below where they go a tip from a viewer about Ram Board. It comes in a couple different thicknesses, so you can get exactly what you need for whatever job, and it is only $30 for a 50 foot long roll of this stuff at Lowes or Home Depot. Hell, you can order it on Amazon!

Watch the video.