Got bored today, decided to remove 90 lbs. of crap from the rear of my car today (spare tire, jack, huge bag o' tools n' stuff, etc.) and I randomly decided to rig up a rear seat delete. I only had one out of four rear seat belt parts remaining, anyway, so the rear was never really useful for any passengers to begin with, and even if what I threw in there isn't exactly NHRA kosher, I can always just toss the seat back in.
What I found was that the 25" x 46" galvanized sheet metal drip pan that I've had sitting around in my spare room forever was EXACTLY the right length/width for the job. With just a bit of trimming for the center hump and the inner rear fenderwells, five 1" screws, and two hours' worth of a lot of sweating in a closed-up black car sitting in direct sunlight resulted in a fairly decent, simple rear seat panel to replace the rear seat.
For cheap sound insulation, I took an old, thin memory foam mattress topper, measured and trimmed it with scissors, and sandwiched it behind the metal panel and under the rear speaker shelf. My crappy Lightning Audio 6"x7" rear speakers actually gained a little bit of bass as a result of the sound deadening material (although they still suck and I long to squeeze in the pair of 6"x9" Sony Xplodes I've got hidden in the closet).
The plain galvanized metal actually kinda matches the gray interior, as-is. I might eventually get all ambitious and roll a bunch of Herculiner truck bed coating over the panel, the bare roof, and (after stripping the stock sound insulation crap off the floor) the rear passenger floor area, but for now it's fine. And, of course, I've gained a lot of cargo space in the rear seat area. According to a bit of weight comparison with the trusty ol' bathroom scale, the factory rear seat, alone, weighed 30 lbs.; the rear panel I installed, complete with sound insulation, only weighs 5 lbs. Additionally, the pneumatic jack weighed 20 lbs., the spare tire was another 25 lbs., and the bag o' goodies (old sensors and such) was another 20 lbs. For purposes of practicality, I'll probably leave the spare and jack in for daily driving, but naturally yank 'em out for track playtime.
Anyone know for sure if this would pass NHRA tech? I don't have a battery in the trunk, if that makes a difference.
What I found was that the 25" x 46" galvanized sheet metal drip pan that I've had sitting around in my spare room forever was EXACTLY the right length/width for the job. With just a bit of trimming for the center hump and the inner rear fenderwells, five 1" screws, and two hours' worth of a lot of sweating in a closed-up black car sitting in direct sunlight resulted in a fairly decent, simple rear seat panel to replace the rear seat.
For cheap sound insulation, I took an old, thin memory foam mattress topper, measured and trimmed it with scissors, and sandwiched it behind the metal panel and under the rear speaker shelf. My crappy Lightning Audio 6"x7" rear speakers actually gained a little bit of bass as a result of the sound deadening material (although they still suck and I long to squeeze in the pair of 6"x9" Sony Xplodes I've got hidden in the closet).
The plain galvanized metal actually kinda matches the gray interior, as-is. I might eventually get all ambitious and roll a bunch of Herculiner truck bed coating over the panel, the bare roof, and (after stripping the stock sound insulation crap off the floor) the rear passenger floor area, but for now it's fine. And, of course, I've gained a lot of cargo space in the rear seat area. According to a bit of weight comparison with the trusty ol' bathroom scale, the factory rear seat, alone, weighed 30 lbs.; the rear panel I installed, complete with sound insulation, only weighs 5 lbs. Additionally, the pneumatic jack weighed 20 lbs., the spare tire was another 25 lbs., and the bag o' goodies (old sensors and such) was another 20 lbs. For purposes of practicality, I'll probably leave the spare and jack in for daily driving, but naturally yank 'em out for track playtime.
Anyone know for sure if this would pass NHRA tech? I don't have a battery in the trunk, if that makes a difference.