Tailgunner Delete and Cargo area mods

My wagon had the 3rd row seat pulled by a previous owner and had a stereo system of some sort. I'm looking to make my ride more of a utility veeeeeehicle, so I'm interested in seeing any pics of guys that might have modded similarly.

The folding foot well cover is all busted up, so I'm thinking of making a folding panel out of some 3/4" Ply, and then a layer of either heavy rubber mat, or diamond plate.. Maybe add a few D-rings to hold stuff from flying around the interior..


Thoughts?

Use aluminum diamond plate all by itself. It is a lot lighter and just about as strong as plywood. If you  have to brace the aluminum do so with some angle stock. You can use a piano hinge to hold it to the cargo bay frame. The 3/4 inch plywood is so heavy, that you will regret it soon after installing it.

use the laminate fake wooden floor stuff made out of fiberglass, its easy to work with,. takes rough treatment,. and is light,. comes in all shades of fake wood,.

A 4 x 6 commercial rubber/carpet floor mat works wonders covering it all up. my mom owns a restaurant and gave me an old mat that was too heavy for the teenage girls to move.

now just figure out how to add about 6" of wheelbase so that a 4X8 sheet of plywood REALLY fits in the back.

Ive seen the laminate floor trick a few times with mixed results. Really just depends on your skill level. Ive also seen the fake bamboo curtain used for a headliner that looked awesome!

Bumping back up due to progress. I went with 3/4" plywood for strength, and even then added bracing underneath. The weight does not seem bad. I reattached all of the latching and hinges from the old busted flaps.
I didn't have the latching mechanism for the very rear piece, so I just bored a 1" finger hole for now. It's located where the latch would go, so some work with a jigsaw will be the next step once i decide how it will latch. Next step is to seal the wood and then glue down some carpeting. An upside of living in Motown is that there is a shop that specializes in automotive interior trim, I'll check them out for some carpeting, if that does not fare well, grey all westher carpet it is.

well you can throw a motor on top of it no problem! Personally, I would have gone 1/2 or 5/8s on the plywood, but it's not that much different. Looks good

Sprocket wrote:

well you can throw a motor on top of it no problem!    Personally, I would have gone 1/2 or 5/8s on the plywood, but it's not that much different.   Looks good

Definitely trailer hitches!!

A block for sure, I tried an LS2 shortblock and needed the added height of the footwell to fit it with the cherry picker boom and a TBSS oilpan. A future mod will be to rip out the carpet in at least the foot well and then putting in some bedliner for engine hauling duties.
Even with the extra bracing, there was sag with just half my weight on it, and the cost difference between 1/2 and 3/4 is only a few bucks. The weight is not objectionable at all, the torsion spring still pops the assembly up when releasing the latch, the wood thickness is probably comparable to the assembly with the seat back installed.

I decided to stuff an air tank and compressor behind the left wheel, so the floor area stays uncluttered other than the pictured jumper cables...... and bbq grill grate (??!!)

Nice work.

Is that a fold down arm rest on your rear seat back? Did you do that mod or prior owner?

Wagoninabox wrote:

Nice work.

Is that a fold down arm rest on your rear seat back?  Did you do that mod or prior owner?  

Previous owner slapped an impala seat back in there without the rest of the wagon guts. Once I find a 94-96 seat I'll recover it with the Impala skin with center armrest.

Looking good,thanks for sharing your pics.

The bracing should be steel angle stock, about 2-3 inches tall, running from side to side. The second layer of plywood is not tall enough to make a sufficiently strong stiffener. My guess would be 4 pieces of 2 1/2 inch angle steel screwed to the bottom, or 3 pieces through bolted with flat head screws on the top, to keep the floor from sagging with weight on it. You should brace the front section the same way. You could taper the ends if you need clearance when closing the hatch.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

The bracing should be steel angle stock, about 2-3 inches tall, running from side to side. The second layer of plywood is not tall enough to make a sufficiently strong stiffener. My guess would be 4 pieces of 2 1/2 inch angle steel screwed to the bottom, or 3 pieces through bolted with flat head screws on the top, to keep the floor from sagging with weight on it. You should brace the front section the same way. You could taper the ends if you need clearance when closing the hatch.

Considering that the original folding floor was 2 layers of ABS plastic and some carpeting, the plywood with plywood bracing is plenty. I have 2 4" wide strips and 2 2" wide strips crosswise that make a laminate that's 1.4"thick, spaced 11" and 14" apart. I may actually add Liquid Nail to make a true laminate. . no doubt more is better, but we are way stronger than stock already.