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5-door Cargo Area Storage

12K views 27 replies 9 participants last post by  Doohickie 
#1 ·
When looking at new cars, I saw some neat storage concepts in the hatch areas of cars such as the Suzuki Aerio SX, Kia Spectra5 and Mazda3 Wagon. I am thinking about adding something similar to the hatch area of my Elantra.

When the rear seats are fully folded, they sit slightly higher than the cargo area floor. My idea is to build some storage into the floor area and bring it up to the level of the folded seats.

The basic idea is to put in a new trunk floor with some divided storage areas (and maybe removeable bins), then add a second floor on top. I plan on using the original cargo area carpet on top of all that to get an OEM look.

The plan includes hinged doors to give access to the left ant right rear corners, as well as to the child seat anchors just behind the rear seat.

The result will be a nicely reinforced trunk floor with storage areas underneath to keep things from rolling around.

I'm also thinking about making a new real deck that will hopefully prevent road noise from the cargo area from getting into the passenger compartment and will also have some storage built into the bottom side. (I built something similar for my old Ford Aspire and it cut road noise a lot.)

I'll try to take pics of the project and post them. Stay tuned!
 
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#3 · (Edited)
Yep. And the seat backs area little higher than the trunk floor- about 2-1/2 inches higher. So I plan to use 1x3 lumber to make bins that the floor will rest on. Over the spare tire there is additional depth available and I plan to put in some removable plastic bins.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Here's a link to an early concept sketch. It's been tweaked to simplify and fit the cargo area better. The Plastic Tote Bins were bought from Sears, are by 16" by 10-3/4" by 4-1/2" deep and are removeable (I had to cut off the handle to make it fit under the floor though). I ended up putting flip-up doors in both the left and right corners, and the only thing forward of the tray is a door to cover the child seat hooks (no structure attached to the car). The sketch shows a 39" wide tray, but I found that 36" was the max width that comfortably fit through the opening.
 
#9 ·
Okay... it isn't quite finished yet (needs paint & carpet), but functionally, it's about there. Pardon the sawdust, the work is still in progress.

When the hatch is opened, it looks pretty much like any Elantra hatchback:






Even when the seats are folded, it still looks pretty much normal except for a few details:


But there are little storage areas under the corners of the floor:




And when the floor is lifted, there's a lot MORE storage:


With the OEM floor removed, the storage areas are easier to see. There is a main storage tray in the middle, with a forward door attached to cover the child seat anchors and bridge the gap to the rear seat. On either side are separate pieces with the hinged doors shown earlier:


The tray sections are 1 x 3 lumber which makes them 2-1/2 inches deep. There are two removable bins that are 4-1/2 inches deep:


To access the spare tire, lift the central tray up:


And finally, some views showing the details at the front of the central tray, just behind the rear seats. First, seats folded down and floor flat:


Next, folding the floor so that the seats can be folded back up:


And the view with one seat folded up:


Like I said, I still need to do some finish work like paint (bought a can of rejected stuff for $1 at the home improvement store) and installing some carpet in the bottoms of the storage trays and on some of the visible wood pieces (got the trunk carpet from an old Camry for $5 from the junkyard). Then it will be done!
 
#13 ·
nice, but vampyrate you don't need a hatch to do the same thing. the sadan is pretty much the same case as the hatchback. we still have a two inch gap between the seats and actual trunk floor. wanna see more pics when you are completely done. do you plan on painting or carpeting the storage space?
 
#15 ·
menallychllngd said:
do you plan on painting or carpeting the storage space?
Yes. Paint with carpet in the bottoms of the trays and the side areas. When closed up, the plan is to see only carpet.

ba_feitl said:
Good capentry there ... looks really good.

I'd paint every thing a dark gray to blend in with the interior colors.
Like I said, the plan is to only have carpet exposed. The color I picked out is a light gray with the goal of making things easier to see in the dark. At the store, there was a can of Colonial Red which would have been really cool considering the body color, but it was half empty and not really for sale. So I settled for light gray. I may still change my mind, though, if I stop by and find a better color, like a slightly darker gray or some kind of red that is close to the body color.

As far as the carpentry goes, let's just say that the photos hide a lot of sins! Before painting, I plan on using some spackling to smooth out some of the surfaces, and the right hand corner door might have to be redone because the existing piece is actually in pretty sorry shape.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I haven't weighed the tray, but even with the stuff you see in it, it lifts pretty easily.

And if you really want the tray, southpawboston, I am thinking of generating actual "engineering drawings" of the project as a DIY. With a good parts list and drawings, I think this could be built in a weekend or two. You can see based on the date of my original post this has taken about a month or so, but that has included a lot of figuring things out and I've only been working on it in my spare time.

The last thing I need to do is that the forward left section of the main tray is mostly closed off by the piece that supports the OEM floor; I am going to hinge that to provide access to that section, which is sized to accept a loose leaf binder (my maintenance & mod log). Right now, I can't get it in.
 
#24 ·
Looks good. Reminds me of the floor in my Santa Fe, it comes OEM with the trays and compartments. Look forward to seeing finished results.
 
#25 · (Edited)
I'm getting a little ahead of myself in that I am cutting and installing some of the carpet before painting. But I want it to look as good as possible prior to the DFW meet Friday, and it's too cold for paint.

Got the carpet attached and it looks great, but I'm gonna have to mess around with it a bit- the carpet is too think and makes things a little tight.

Also, I measured the entire center tray including forward door flaps and carpet: 20 lb. total, which means when you lift it up to get to the spare tire, you're lifting less than 10 lb. (a lot of the weight is toward the front and rests on the car floor).

And for the record, it's like 15 degrees and the car is outside (long story; it should be in the garage) so.... don't ask for any pics. If I make it to the DFW meet Friday, there will probably be pics from that.
 
#26 ·
The weather is too cold for paint, so other than that, the mod is done. Here are some pics:

Here is the view into the hatch with everything closed up. I'm trying to show the area at the base of the rear seat; this is where stuff changed from previous pics. The "apron" of lighter gray carpet can sit below the old OEM carpet or above it; it doesn't really matter. When it's on top, the difference in color shows a bit more, but it looks tidier to me. In previous versions, the little piece sticking up just behind the seats was folded down, but that didn't hinge right, so I moved the hinge point to fold it up; it fits better that way.


Here's a view of the same area with the seats folded down:


Looking through the open side rear door, here is how it looks:


To access the child seat anchors, the door flips up (the access door can fold with either seats up or down):


The little cubbie holes on the outside are now carpeted:




This view is similar to an earlier pic, I think, but if you notice the tray section on the upper right is mostly covered and it is hard to get my log book in and out of it (which is what it is sized for):


So I made a hinged door:


And this isn't part of the mod, really, but it improves visibility in the trunk: I put an 1156 bulb fixture in the left corner that is wired in with the stock trunk light. The light is in the upper center of the picture, covered in galvanized mesh left over from my grill:
 
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