I’ve basically stripped the interior of my car from the front seats and back, except for the side panels and speaker towers.
What my project consists of is this:
Buying plywood, cutting it to fit over the entire area of the car, making a flat surface where the rear seats used to be and into the trunk.
What kind of plywood should I get? Are there differences? How thick? How should I cut? Is there some easy way I could cut it perfectly? How should I support it, say if I wanted to toss a futon back there and camp out w/ the girl ;O)
Basically I want to just cover up all the strange crevices and stuff so it will be flat, and so I can still put stuff in the back when I need.
If anybody has any suggestions or comments, plz post. I’ve seen all these custom trunks people have, but they probably went to a shop for that?
I don’t know, this is a complicated question. Just wondering what people think =O)
I’d skip the mdf if you’re going to be using it to sit on and such. MDF is too weak and too heavy imo. Go with something like birch plywood (preferably baltic birch, it tends to have more even layers, but typically costs a bit more and oftentimes comes in metric sizes), or possibly luan (nice and light, but not always too strong). Or you could also just go with basic fir plywood and coat it with something to keep it from being too rough. As for thickness, go with at least 1/2", maybe even 5/8-3/4" depending on how much weight is going to be on it. Your other option is to go with like 3/8-1/2" and affix a sort of grid to the back of it to help stiffen it up. As for grades of plywood, I wouldn’t worry too much, just go to someplace like home depot and pick up a few sheets of whatever you like that looks reasonably nice. I forget the specifics of plywood grading, but typically places like home depot don’t sell really really low grades or really really high grades, and for what you’re doing, it won’t matter much if any what grade you get (usually the grades are only referring to the faces, like cabinet grades have basically perfect faces, but cost more). I would suggest trying to get one with exterior glue in it just for a little added protection against moisture, but it’s not absolutely necessary in a trunk.
As for how to cut and shape the plywood, just use a good jigsaw and a lot of sandpaper and power sanders if necessary (orbital, disc, belt, spindle, etc). I don’t know exactly what shape you want to get, but if it’s fairly complex, be prepared to spend a while getting it to fit right. If you need some pointers on how to transfer curves and such, just ask, although I have yet to find a perfect method, all of them have their drawbacks.
I’m working on the same sort of thing, my entire rear end is stripped out, side panels and all, and I’m working on basically leveling out the back end so that it’s possible to lie down back there and maybe have a seat back there (trying to figure out how to fit a seat in the back that would be comfy, since the stock back seat sucks). I’m making a frame out of square steel tubing to support it though, and using foam cored fiberglass panels instead of plywood to save weight. I’m going to take pics of it when I finish, but currently my auto/manual swap is taking precedence over the interior, so it’ll be a while before I get a lot done (I need to be able to lower the car off the jackstands so that I can level the rear end for the frame, and lowering with the suspension disassembled tends to be a bit hard on the car 
)
Good luck!
Once you get it all cut out, try this stuff. It’s called ITW Foamseal’s AUTOSEAL Automotive Sealant Foam. It’s a foam that you spray into crevices in your car to stiffen your chassis. But I imagine if you spray in under the plywood you won’t have to worry about the plywood breaking because I hear it’s hard as concrete when it hardens and weighs next to nothing. Here’s the link:
http://www.itwfoamseal.com/auto_aftermarket.htm
use the trunk carpet to help you cut the shape out, it’ll be pretty close to that, except that it won’t fit right in your trunk because of the side pieces. let me know if you get stuck, i have plans to make one, but too lazy
no back seat
I took out my back seat and made a flat shelf to sit my box on i just got 1 sheet of plywood and 2 2x4’s cut the 2x4’s to the width by the front of where the seat used to be and screwed them together in an L shape and bolted them to the floor. if u drill holes in the seat pan area about 1 to 11/2 in back from the front edge then u can get underneath and you will have room btwn the gas tank and raised front area to get the bolts in oh almost forgot you have to knoch out a center section about 7 in wide and 3/4 in deep to allow the front crossmember to sit flat. Then i took a large aheet of paper like wrapping paper and taped it to the cross member and streched it through to the trunk and made a pattern to cut the 3/4ply wood out of. Mine doesn’t cover the whole rear just where the rear seat used to be but then i just covered it with speaker box carpet and it looks good. i would have pics but i use a library computer and can’t get pics uploaded
I might do some kind of carpet. Is speaker box carpet a good idea?
I might also do a little “artistic” work on the wood. I’m going to be painting the entire flat thing with some kind of design or another… if I were to paint something onto the wood, how can I make it so that it’ll be shiney afterwards, and sort of durable?
Also, if I just sit the plywood there and support it, it will still move around… do you think if i get the “soft velcro” tape (not the plastic hooks one, but the one the hooks go into and tape it along the edges and bottom of the wood, it won’t squeak and make noise when I’m hitting those pinturns with the handbreak?
this is great help guys! THANKS SO MUCH so far. keep it coming.
Hmmm … I’d go with the aluminum panels, riveted down … that would look awesome … RACE baby …
the one thing that stopped me from doing what you are planning on is i always though it looked funky with the side paneling comformed for seats being there and also the old holes where the rear passenger seat belts were bolted onto. i know it not much, but it doesn’t take much for a good thing to look really really funky. good luck, and one thing I can recommend is if you’re gonna get into vinyl to use contact cement sprayed through an air gun. everything else will eventually come up from what i’ve experienced. HTH
ARCHIVETHIS
i’m such a whore when it comes to useful information.
actually i think i’m just a whore…