My Honda Logo, which is a so-called “Super Mini,” is small. Really small. Despite the car having four doors, it’s honestly a struggle to fit four full sized adults in the GA3. I’ve done it twice, and nobody enjoyed the experience. I almost always had the seats down. So, I decided to double my hatch space and reduce my weight with a false floor.
So, the first thing I had to do was strip the back floor out. That meant ripping out the seats themselves, the support bars underneath the seats, and unbolting the rear seat belts to reveal the black, sticky, and starting to rust metal and tar below. I took the rear carpeting of the seats and hatch area and set it aside—I’d need it later for my floor pattern.
Then I gave the hatch and rear area a good coverage of matched silver from my local Autobacs shop. Looking so fresh, fresh, and so clean, clean.
I took a trip to the home improvement store called Sekichu. For about $60 U.S., I picked up a hammer, nails, saw, MDF boards (largest available, and a smaller part to take care of the overage), wood for the feet of the false floor, and red carpeting.
I then used the carpet from the hatch and the back of the removed seats that I had set aside in order to draw a pattern on the MDF which would fit all the curves and corners of the full length of my rear area.
I sawed out the pieces, used some heavy duty tan duck tape to secure the separate sections in such a way that the overage actually folds up, in case I need to store something under the false floor. Putting it in through the rear doors, I was able to fit test it and see where I needed to shave it or slice it to fit more exactly.
When I was satisfied with the fit, I took it back out, unfurled the carpeting, and cut it at about one inch thickness beyond what the shape of the MDF was, flipped it over, sprayed it down with 3M liquid adhesive, and curled the edges all around.
I then cut the wood into feet, attached it to the underside of the MDF at three points along to provide weight bearing rigidity, and voila!
I’ve now had the opportunity to dump about three huge pieces of luggage onto it from someone moving out of the country, and it has taken the weight admirably.
Extremely cheap DIY project, and it only took me about eight hours. It would have been faster and cheaper if I had done something like this before or already owned the necessary tools and/or some of the materials.
Good luck on your project!
Images via Kat Callahan/Jalopnik.