With the advent of of third
generation of Camaros, the trunk
was eliminated from the f-body.
It was nice to have a real trunk and a real spare in my 1979
Berlinetta. In the thirdgen f-bodies, there is only the
passenger
compartment with a rear hatch area: this doesn't afford much security
for storing "stuff." So how to store/mount audio and other
gear?
My original amplifiers, a 100Wrms x 2 Cruthfield amp and a small 30Wrms
x2 Sony, were just placed in
the rear hatch cavity and a dedicated pair (hot + return) of #10
twisted wires were run from the battery back to the amp. When
I
purchased the car an Alpine head unit with cassette deck immediately
replaced the factory Bose system, which I installed in a buddies
Lebaron convertible. The Alpine was replaced a few years
later
with a Sony CD HU, which was then replaced with the DEH-P7600MP in the
2000 time frame. The Crutchfield amp died in 2003 after
nearly 15
years. I replaced it with a small Pioneer GM-X362.
When I decided in the summer of 2008 to install a carputer, I thought
of placing it behind the dash next to the ECM: insufficient room.
Under the seat? No way. Just in the
recess as with
the amp? Too theft-prone. Fortunately, as I
contemplated
all of this (not on "The tree of Woe" as did Conan) the zipper pull on
my t-top storage bag broke. Well, now there has to be a
better
and faster way to store the t-tops and provide a mounting area for the
carputer.
My solution--not yet complete--is below.
It's constructed from 1/2" MDF. Poplar supports and a
cross-member running the width on the bottom will keep it from sagging.
The storage top is framed with poplar and will have a locking
lid
on it. The computer, haed units (sans faceplate, of course),
the
HD radio receiver, battery+UPS controller, etc will be mounted in here.
Fans will also be installed, and the enclosure painted and
carpeted.
Construction Pictures
I'm not going to detail the process here. If you have a saw
(table, circular, or jigsaw), a router (or jigsaw and drill), glue and
screws, then you can make this out of MDF or plywood. I will
mention, however, that I used clamps (turned around into expansion
mode) to hold the t-tops in place when I determined where to route the
slots. also, instead of making the slots curved, I decided to
just make them straight and will fashion nice plastic grommets with
curved slots. The base is cut to extend from the back or the
rear seat all the way to the rear plastic cover, and the storage bin is
built on top of this.
Videos
Routing is done with a number of successively deeper
passes. the following two (boring) videos are of me
routing
one of the slots for the t-tops.
Redo?
Although it does the job, I'm thinking of bending thin plywood to make
a larger and more form-fitting enclosure which would blend well with
the plastic trim.
