Interior 2nd Gen Most liked posts in thread: Rear Seat Delete

It's pretty tough stuff. If you're going to put anything really heavy on it just pay attention as you do it. Even if it sags, it's not going to break easily, so you have a safety zone before complete failure. Here's a pic (lifted from Helix) to give you some idea.



It can be gouged, but I haven't seen that happen much to mine and I've had it in there for something like four years now (I think) and I haven't exactly been kind to it.

Recently I decided to start cutting holes in mine for harnesses, etc, and wanted to raise it to make some add'l space, hinge it along the back and mount an amp to the bottom of it. I figured that was taking away too much strength while adding stress, so I decided to reinforce it with some pvc boards (made to be used in place of wood on outside surfaces of houses, etc) and an aluminum brace skeleton.

Here are a few crappy pics taken in lousy light (plus they're from before I finished the project). Since then I've covered the hinge and, because I raised it and I therefore changed the geometry a bit, I also had to add some gommets at the sides for the Schroth harnesses to come through. The sub enclosure is from RoadsterSound. It's a great unit but now that I've had it in there for a while I've decided I don't need that much sub so I'm going to remove the enclosure soon (and I have another, less conspicuous and much lighter solution to replace the big 12" sub :wink5. FWIW, those aren't scratches or gouges you can see, it's just dirty.

 

Nope, but that would have been the right choice if I hadn't decided to try a more complicated system. There are actually two Alpine PDX amps in there. There's a 4-channel amp under the seat delete panel driving pairs of 2-ways in the doors and on the sides in the back plus a separate 4-channel amp in the enclosure driving a pair of mini-subs on the sides in the back and the big sub in the enclosure.

Like I said above, it's more bass than I need (or want) so I'm about to lose the enclosure and sub from the boot.

 

The kit Helix sells is the Shrader kit. It is not two pieces but is a single part that fits where the seats would be (see the pic with the weights on it or see gregd's post for another good pic). The second part in my MINI (the part in the boot) is a sub enclosure I bought from RoadsterSound. This delete kit does not come with a hinge but is bolted to the rail where the seat back would sit. I added the hinge to mine because I wanted easy access to the space underneath, and I added PVC material to the front and back (below the hinge I added) to raise it a bit and add some add'l space beneath it. The PVC mat'l is bolted where the panel is supposed to bolt and my hinge is attached to that by screws.

You can sort of get under it from the front but you have to flex the panel up to do it and you can't get much through that opening.

Yes. Keep in mind though that they look pretty clean (again, see the pic in gregd's post) and the surface is textured. Mine has a bunch of screw and bolt heads showing because of all the stuff I attached to the underside and I will cover it as soon as I find something I like other than carpet.....probably something rubbery so things won't slide around on it.

If you do the Shrader kit as it's intended, taking it back out and putting the rear seats back in is a piece of cake.

 

You're right, it does flex, but I think your picture is actually more misleading than the one from Helix. I think I thought the same sort of thing when mine arrived. It's been a while but that day I was probably swearing about how much I paid for something that wasn't more rigid.

However, it really does make a very large difference that it's out of the car in your picture. Why? [note: the following isn't for you nitro, it's for those who've never seen one of these things in the "flesh"] Because the long side pictured never has to support any weight at all like that on its own...never. It's only flat and structurally weak along that side because when installed that edge sits perfectly flat on top of a 2" wide (approx) beam that runs along the full length of that side. Do the same thing and take a picture from the other long side (the front). Better yet, support the back edge properly and look at it from from any angle or side while exerting the same amount of force. I now refer you back to the pic from Helix.....

You are right to say it flexes though and a few of us have already mentioned it. The key is it can carry a fairly decent load without deforming or breaking. If you place a heavy load on it, it will flex, but unless you really load it up it will not flex to the point of deformation and it'll bounce right back to perfectly flat when you remove the load.

It's not perfect and I'm not defending it because I have a personal or vested interest -- buy one or don't, I don't care. I just know I used mine without extra support bracing for a few years -- regularly piling lots of stuff on top of it -- without seeing any of the issues I worried about when I first took it out of the box (when I flexed it pretty much the same way you are in your picture). It's MUCH more expensive than it should be, but aside from that it's easier to buy one and pop it in there than it is for many of us to design and build one that will hold up as well.....plus it happens to work.

 

Very cool, and welcome to MA!