Im struggling with what to do on my challenge car. The rear package tray in particular. I have essentially a spec miata back half of cage in it, which necessitated some butchery of the steel back there.
Sine there will be no top whatsoever, and since the look really bothers me, i need to do something. But dont know what. Want it to be sealed and attractive.
Ideas? Picture links? Just trying to find my way here.
Look at Gimp’s cp camaro build thread, i like how he finished his package shelf
Get out your needle and thread and make some sort of tonneau cover? You could even have it cover the passenger side of the car like a vintage British sports car.
Adam
So maybe this is more labor intensive than it would be worth, but what about sanding and staining some pallet wood down?
Use it to cover the parcel shelf, and maybe some other trim elements.
What theme are you running with?
How about a piece of coroplast from some old yard signs, cut around the cage and secured with rivers or self tapping screws, with some carpeting glued to it. Simple, clean, cheap.
Some "found" wall panel, light weight, and some cheap speaker carpeting, glued on. Should be easy to shape and fit.
Around these parts I can pick up a 4'X8' sheet of black textured ABS plastic for under $20
Super easy to work with, cuts with a box knife if nothing else but a table saw, router and jigsaw can make short work of it. Moldable with heat. Float it on the deck with stand offs, holes or slots for the cage tubes and a 90 degree bend to visually finish off the end near the seats.
To my eye, all you really need to do is square/clean up the cuts for the roll bar and remove the seat belt tower/top mounts. I assume you don't need them for anything with a harness bar and a "no top" plan. If they were ever structural, they're probably redundant with the roll bar in place. Paint, re-install the gas tank cover and call it good. Might even be a slight weight savings.
Of course, I would recommend climbing the great Mt. Miata to inquire of the all-knowing shaman "Keith" just to be sure there isn't some unintended effect on the unibody.
Hey Man, I have some steel plate. torch it,hammer it, grind on it, if you will use it you can have it. shouldn't add but a hunnered pounds or so.
but really i wanted to say color contrast works great on the inside.
This is the way mine came. It's backed with foam. I've got it removed right now after the fuel pump replacement. I don't like having gaps in the bulkhead, so I've got some sheet metal (if it ever stops raining here) to fill in the gaps. I'll then replace the material.
Sheet aluminum lift-out tray? Rivets and bolts, some rubber snubbers on the bottom for feet?
Following.
same process as the AMC fender flares????
adam525i said:Get out your needle and thread and make some sort of tonneau cover? You could even have it cover the passenger side of the car like a vintage British sports car.
Adam
Looks like a workable idea to me. Working around the cage might be fun.
Sorry for the lack of feedback from me. Work went nuts and im just now getting home.
I really want to fully close off back there. The idea of squaring the cuts and leaving it appeals to my lazy streak, but not what I want.
I like the ideas of steel/aluminium/chloroplasts, but im not sure how to actually do it. Never tried anything like this before. Looking at my pictures, i think a flat aluminium sheet over the horizontal area, with some sort of verticl wall at the front behind the seats is how i want to tackle it. But how do i actually do it?
I have a buttload of. 030 aluminium sheets i got from stampie to use.
Expanding foam insulation. Shaved and sanded to desired contour and painted. Hide all the nooks and crannies.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:Expanding foam insulation. Shaved and sanded to desired contour and painted. Hide all the nooks and crannies.
Could work. Put down some plastic wrap or something first so that it stays removable.
Get out some cardboard and see if you can make flat shapes work the way you want. They can always be "upholstered" in cheap speaker fabric to hide things. In fact, if you can make a wire or wood frame, you can get more t-shirt material and make a speaker box style enclosure. I know how you love to bondo over fiberglass.
mazdeuce - Seth said:Get out some cardboard and see if you can make flat shapes work the way you want. They can always be "upholstered" in cheap speaker fabric to hide things. In fact, if you can make a wire or wood frame, you can get more t-shirt material and make a speaker box style enclosure. I know how you love to bondo over fiberglass.
If you're going this route, another good material to use is the backing of cheap poster frames from walmart or wherever. It's the same fiberboard material that they make door card backing out of. It's easy to work with and holds up great!
That's an interesting down-bar you did to terminate the harness bar at.. Why'd you choose to do that instead of taking the harness bar over to the diagonal? I'm just curious :)
Patrick said:Look at Gimp’s cp camaro build thread, i like how he finished his package shelf
My package tray area was a little more cut up, but you could do something similar. These are just aluminum panels, bead rolled, and then coated with Lizard Skin and a bit of paint. You could skip the Lizard Skin if you wanted to save on cost, but these double as a heat shield.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:Expanding foam insulation. Shaved and sanded to desired contour and painted. Hide all the nooks and crannies.
I saw some fire retardant spray foam in Lowes. The label said, "not for aircraft use" but did not have any exclusions for use in vehicles.
Wouldn't foam encourage rust???
In reply to Gimp :
Looked through the build thread. Can you give me a lot more details about what stuff is attached to, how you made templates, etc? You have what i want, i think.
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