Custom shelf for rear seat area (one more time!)
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:07 am
I picked up a 2x4 sheet of 3/4” finish-grade plywood. I made a cardboard template for a shelf extending from the existing shelf to near the seat backs.
I traced the pattern for the edge cuts onto the plywood, cut with a jigsaw, and rounded over the top edges with a 1/4” roundover bit in my router.
I used 3M contact cement to coat both the plywood and carpet, then joined once the adhesive was ready. The carpet was trimmed with a utility knife blade, manually stretched, and power stapled with 3/8” staples.
The large holes in the metal strapping fit the large seat mount bolts in the bottom of the back seatwells. I used 3” wood screws with washers to join the other end of the straps to the front “ears” of the new shelf. The straps secure the shelf, anchoring it back and down into the seat mount points; they are SOLID.
After the carpet job was done, I used an angle grinder to knock off the sharp corners of the straps and attached my subwoofer to the underside of the shelf. A block on the driveline hump lifts the shelf to the desired height and to level the new shelf back-to-front.
Overall,I’m pretty happy. The sub is nicely installed, rock solid, and hidden, and I have a safe storage area of at least a cubic foot behind the passenger seat now. The straps are grounded and the sub is powered by a 1-gauge stranded power line I pulled through the firewall to the battery, so I have plenty of power and room for stuff.
This mod was absolutely worth a day of dicking with power tools and about 50 bucks’ worth of Home Depot swag...
Photos are in no real order since this is not a step by step diy.
I traced the pattern for the edge cuts onto the plywood, cut with a jigsaw, and rounded over the top edges with a 1/4” roundover bit in my router.
I used 3M contact cement to coat both the plywood and carpet, then joined once the adhesive was ready. The carpet was trimmed with a utility knife blade, manually stretched, and power stapled with 3/8” staples.
The large holes in the metal strapping fit the large seat mount bolts in the bottom of the back seatwells. I used 3” wood screws with washers to join the other end of the straps to the front “ears” of the new shelf. The straps secure the shelf, anchoring it back and down into the seat mount points; they are SOLID.
After the carpet job was done, I used an angle grinder to knock off the sharp corners of the straps and attached my subwoofer to the underside of the shelf. A block on the driveline hump lifts the shelf to the desired height and to level the new shelf back-to-front.
Overall,I’m pretty happy. The sub is nicely installed, rock solid, and hidden, and I have a safe storage area of at least a cubic foot behind the passenger seat now. The straps are grounded and the sub is powered by a 1-gauge stranded power line I pulled through the firewall to the battery, so I have plenty of power and room for stuff.
This mod was absolutely worth a day of dicking with power tools and about 50 bucks’ worth of Home Depot swag...
Photos are in no real order since this is not a step by step diy.