I have been making my custom parcel shelf over the past few days. I made a custom shelf because i wanted the pre-cut speaker holes open so i could have more bass in the car. I am gonna write this as a tute thing because i want to explain the pics.

Okay I started off removing the material that was on the parcel shelf which entailed the removal of the bottom of the rear seat, the side things on the 60/40 part of the seat, the plastic on the C frame and the speakers.

Then i got some 3mm MDF and got the shape of the parcel shelf by using the removed carpet and grease proof paper (for tracing the outline of the carpet). As you see below.



Then I placed the speaker where i wanted it.


The speaker looks high here, however this is the base level of MDF, there is three levels in total.

As you can see in the next pic which has the third level(the highest) the speakers sits just above the MDF, this was fixed later on with some 3mm MDF glued under the legs of the speaker support(12mm MDF).


This photo below shows the shelf from above with the holes going into the boot and still only the bottom and top level.


The following picture now has the middle level as well which was added in held up by some 18mm hard wood i found in the shed. Also you will see some little steps made out of wood. This was done with four layers of 3mm MDF stuck together and angled back. I did the steps so that when it came time for bog it was easier and more cost effective. Also at the back of the shelf you will see Expanda foam which i went a little overboard with but i had never used it before and didn't know how much it would expand. Also you will see the steps go over the two inner holes which i want going into the boot. I cut them out using a jigsaw later on.



Okay in the folloowing pic you will see i went to work with bog and some more expanda foam on the inside of the shelf. The expanda foam you will see between the two levels for deadening so i dont get any echo. Also in the pics below i wanted to show you the actual height between the levels. Also in the pics you will see that i stuck rings around the two inner holes because it will be easier for me to stick the vinyl over the edges and in the dips. Also because in the previous picture the exapanda foam expanded too much i had to cut it back on the back of the shelf.





Alright after the bog had dried it was time to sand then refill then sand again.





Once i had sanded all that i could and my hands were stuffed it was time to stick the underlay on. I stuck the underlay on first as i thought i needed to be flipped over and therefore if the vinyl was on, it would get stratched. The blue rubber matting in pics is the underlay which i used to stop viration noises from wood hitting metal.



After i stuck the underlay on i checked that it still had clearance from the window as it was raised by 5mm by the rubber.





After all was clear it was time to stick the vinyl on as it was one of the last things left to do. I used contact adhesive to stick the vinyl on. I was lucky i didn't get any vinyl that group together around the curves otherwise it wouldn't have looked too good.







After it still all fit i then had to cut some holes in the vinyl and then wack the speakers in. The finished product:





There you go fellas. I would like to thank my dad for helping me with the final stages of sticking rubber and vinyl down.

The TOTAL COST

MDF - $15
Expanda Foam - $18
Vinyl - $7.50
Car Filler (BOG) - $19
Contact Adhesive - $14
Rubber matting - $24

Comes to $97.50

I think it was well worth it.

You reckon someone could make this a doco.

Cheers

Last edited by DMac on Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:29 pm, edited 7 times in total.

looking very neat man, guess thats 1 way of attackign the parcel shelf while keeping it all legal to fit bigger speakers, should turn out good

i'm not fitting bigger speakers, same ones that were in the shelf before.

Cheers

Ah it's good to see you taking photos of such a mod I was going to do this at one stage but wasted too much MDF hahah! Keep us updated.

DMac- Looking VERY good, if it sounds anywhere near as good as it will look it will be sweet!

All that expanding stuff would do wonders for sound deadening as u said....heaps better than that foam/carpet/felt/whatever it is that ford has there....in parts!

good stuff

Also I have bought some rubber matting which I am going to stick to the bottom of the shelf i am making to stop vibration noise coming from the wood hitting the metal.

Cheers

Very good, keep us informed with pics as you progress.

Good job keen to see the final result.

Well done! I never thought about doing it that way .I ended up ditching the atempt I started .It was s**t. MORE PIC,s

whats the go with the law and the parcel shelf?
also why is this?


and it looks good mate, like the other person said, nice and neat

the parcel shelf is not allowed to be modified in any car. that is the metal cannot be cut for drilled into.

this is because it is a structual part of the car and in doing so can weaken it.

well, the general jist of it

Doesn't take much to rip a large boxed speaker off a rear shelf and have it huttling forward in a frontal crash. Infact quite some years ago a top fiat exec was killed when his briefcase flew off the rear parcel shelf and smacked him in the back of the head in what was only a mid force impact with another car.

So i suspect it the law has more to do with no wanting poorly attached 'killer' speakers on the rear parcel shelf rather than any weakening of the sheet metal structure

Cheers

I believe it also has something to do with the parcel shelf being the mounting point for a seatbelt (middle one)..

That is very fine work .Ok I give up Who wants to do mine ?LOL

yeah i heard about that, but i will see what happens. I heard that you need all baby seat anchors need to be accessible, but i couldn't be stuffed ringing vic roads. Then i read on the website that seat belts need to be accesible so it okay....i think.

Question...what are the holes for? Look like aaammm....speaker ports...but they couldnt be...cos theyd just be porting to the metal parcel shelf?

Im confuzzled

Otherwise, looks tops! Need like an emboridered FORD logo in the middle and itd be sweet as!