Another problem with the GTO is that the rear seats are basically useless. Add to that the fact that the front seats have to be shifted back a bit for it to be really comfortable for me to drive means that no-one can sit in the back, so they might as well go, and be replaced with something more useful.
As you may recall from previous posts, the rear of the car looks something like the above. I already stripped out all of the rear seat parts to make access simpler for cleaning and repair.
With the whole of the rear stripped bare I started off with some basics. Any rear construction will need some mounting points so I used some riv-nuts drilled into the bodywork behind the front seats to mount some wooden baton, and then used some existing M6 holes in the rear strut-brace to mount the rear bar.
I spent some time trying to get the measurements of the rear load area. This is easier said than done, but I managed to get a rough approximation. Unfortunately I didn't have any wood big enough to accommodate the whole area so I had to make do with "close enough". The batons that were secured behind the drivers seats also needed some trimming to allow for the curvature of the chassis, but conveniently I already had two bits with the exact cut-outs that were required.
I installed the board, and offered it up to get it leveled out. This was, of course, assuming the car was level. Close enough. Once i found the level I chocked it in place and then cut the angle bars to support it at the front. This was a total pain in the backside, but I got there in the end. Lastly I cut the 3 panels to cover the front. The two doors, and the center panel to be used for the electrics.
Bare wood doesn't look great unless you are boarding out a van, so it needed some covering. I conveniently had some spare junk carpet sourced from the stage at insomnia events. The carpet usually gets binned during packdown so i cut a few chunks off for just this purpose.
With some assistance, I marked, cut, sprayed, and stapled the carpet, fitted as tightly as possible. Corners were a bit of a pain but cutting out a triangle in the right place makings folding possible without overlap.
The end result. I had contemplated covering the uprights, but this was going to be a very fiddly task. Instead I opted to just paint them black.
Next up, the doors, and central panel, were covered in the same manner.
These changes meant that the load area was now completely level front to back so I needed a way to divide the boot from the cabin.
The wooden baton mounted across the rear brace makes for a great place to secure this divider and it may be possible to build some more secure bits that hook into the rear strut towers in the future too. This will require some metal work so for now I will just live with vertical supports.
For this I used some 12mm steel tube. This tube was cut to length, and holes drilled through the baton and deck to support it. The tubes were primed and painted to make them look good, and stop rusting, and then secured to the divider bar with heavy duty zip ties.
And thats the final product. As you can see it doesn't quite fit, but this will do for now.
This is what the divider looks like when you remove it, and with it re-installed.
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