possible trunk hacking

[blowthemup 21]

Trying to make room for a larger box to fit in from the front of the trunk/rear seat. You can see there is some sheet metal in the way that would need removing. Think this would hurt the structural integrity of the car? Lazy half azz drawings...sry

 

The pieces outlined in yellow triangles will bolt out. I would have to cut my rear deck trim panel up to the red line. The orange rectangle is a slight hump that may limit my height of the box getting through, its probably removable but will not be able to be put back after without welding lol. It may not interfere after cutting the top of the opening.

 

 

 

 

I marked a red line on the back about egual to the red line on the front to show where I would probably cut. 

 

 

 

Here on the back side you can see the bolts holding the bottom side triangle pieces in. Also the hump that may pose a problem to the height in and out of the opening.

[Fi 4 life 0]

If you aren't planning on taking the box out for a long time I'd suggest building the box inside the trunk

[blowthemup 21]

If you aren't planning on taking the box out for a long time I'd suggest building the box inside the trunk

Thats not an issue leaving it in. I did have the idea of building a box in the trunk but figured finishing it would be hard and messy inside the vehicle. Not sure how well Im capable of building a solid box in the trunk, out of the trunk is no problem for me lol.

 

I suppose you could come up with some kind of tab system to screw the box together from the inside. Or can it be done strictly with just glue and clamps? Having a hard time picturing long clamps holding panels together within the trunk. Seems like the clamps would require a lot of additional room.

Edited March 12, 2015 by blowthemup

[///M5 2,833]

That will weaken the car BIG TIME

[blowthemup 21]

That will weaken the car BIG TIME

I really wanna think that it would not hurt it much, being it is a performance oriented car I would hate to cripple it though. As of now i'm leaning towards not hacking the trunk and building in it or doing something smaller.

[Fi 4 life 0]

Another option is an IB substage like im plannin on doind in a super charged grand prix

[blowthemup 21]

Another option is an IB substage like im plannin on doind in a super charged grand prix

Cant hate on ya but I really don't like the idea of a IB setup, not even remotely interested in going that route but thanks for the idea

[///M5 2,833]

That will weaken the car BIG TIME

I really wanna think that it would not hurt it much, being it is a performance oriented car I would hate to cripple it though. As of now i'm leaning towards not hacking the trunk and building in it or doing something smaller.

it would fuck it up majorly. Cars these days have no extra material for which you can thank the tree hugging dipshits

[blowthemup 21]

Something like what this guy did might work for me.

 

[Jasonc13 33]

Do you know anyone that can weld well?  It would be no different than mocking up a roll cage for an autocross car, on much smaller stage. Once the outer frame was intact, you could build the inner angled struts to be removable. I would be happy to help you mock up all the tube stock needed to make this work.  A good friend is an engineer with a badass Miller mig/tig welder.  I'll ask if this is something he would be interested in.

 

If not, I too think you may need to build this sucker inside the trunk. 

 

I think you have pretty good height IIRC.  Ball park, what dimensions do you have to work with?

[blowthemup 21]

Do you know anyone that can weld well?  It would be no different than mocking up a roll cage for an autocross car, on much smaller stage. Once the outer frame was intact, you could build the inner angled struts to be removable. I would be happy to help you mock up all the tube stock needed to make this work.  A good friend is an engineer with a badass Miller mig/tig welder.  I'll ask if this is something he would be interested in.

 

If not, I too think you may need to build this sucker inside the trunk. 

 

I think you have pretty good height IIRC.  Ball park, what dimensions do you have to work with?

I dont know about taking it that far, just settling with the idea of removing sheet metal was hard. I remember when I first got the car I wanted to cry when I started drilling holes in the trunk to mount stuff. Think I need to focus more on building in the trunk, theres plenty of room for two twelves.

 

Building in there I bet I could go from 29" wide to almost 36", take my spare out and i can go from 24" deep to 30" or so, could go up an inch or two from 14.5" but would make the last top panel harder to get on building in the trunk.

[Jasonc13 33]

I hear ya...no worries!  You can do WAY better with the prefab than the guy in that video.

 

 Using a kreg jig, you can screw from the inside of the box, getting perfect screw hold until the glue dries.  A lot of guys use this technique, like Frogcase in his it trunk build on page 25. That was an excellent box btw! 

[Jasonc13 33]

Here's a baseline Torres config.  I think this could get pretty Nasty in that Accord

 

[basshead7890 128]

I cut all that out of my current civic and my last accord too

Edited March 13, 2015 by basshead7890

[blowthemup 21]

I cut all that out of my current civic and my last accord too

Do you feel like if affected the car at all, i wouldn't even be taking out as much as you did?

[blowthemup 21]

Hey Jason what happens to the net size if you dropped the height down to 15?

[Jasonc13 33]

Keeping port width the same, port area drops to 77.63in2 @ 30" in length, net volume drops to 5.31ft3 and tuning rises to 31.32hz. 

[blowthemup 21]

Keeping port width the same, port area drops to 77.63in2 @ 30" in length, net volume drops to 5.31ft3 and tuning rises to 31.32hz. 

Thats about the size I would be looking at for two twelves, aint getting in there unless i do what basshead did or build it in there though. I really think i would be fine removing a litte sheet metal, i'm not even cutting into the main upper portion like basshead did.

[jcarter1885 995]

Those yellow areas with the bolts, I removed from my car but I didn't cut any sheet metal. Cant speak on if it made a difference, shit I wouldn't even know what difference to look for.

[///M5 2,833]

Do you feel like if affected the car at all, i wouldn't even be taking out as much as you did?

Functionally speaking he totalled his car.

It is nutso how optimized the structure in cars today is. Here is a visualization for you.

Each color is a DIFFERENT material chosen for bending, twisting, crushing, or other structural property. The goal today is to get as light as possible without creating a crash test concern. During the build of the Cadillac ATS, GM had a slogon "every gram counts". If you think you can take ANY structural component out and not have a negative reaction you are nuts. Every manufacturer is like this, they have to be. I spend a good portion of my time helping them reduce mass, not an engineer working on any car body that wouldn't absolutely shit at what you propose.

[///M5 2,833]

And by different material. Generally speaking they are different tensile strength steels. Of course we are now seeing aluminum and even magnesium and soon composites. Either way, if you ever plan to sell the car if it isn't disclosed you'll be screwed if something happens down the road.

[blowthemup 21]

Ok.......you ain't gotta twist my arm on it anymore. I just need to get a bigger vehicle with more room.

[Thumpper 266]

 I seen a guy remove all the X bracing behind the rear seat and cut out the rear deck

 he went smoking over a little lip on a set of rail road tracks and the ass end of the car kind of twisted

and buckled breaking out the rear window when he landed

[///M5 2,833]

Insurance wouldn't cover that either...

[blowthemup 21]

Guess im gonna need some advice on building the box in the trunk. I would think it would be best to have all the pieces cut and test assemble the box before putting it together inside the trunk. Any ideas on the best way to fasten it together besides glue and clamps? Gonna be hard to screw much if any of the box from the exterior of it. Feel like clamps will be impossible and hard in some spots as well.