Parcel shelf....How's yours??

[imported_brackie]

OK, I'm an originality nut. Probably due to my nostalgic disposition. When I bought my Mk1 there was no parcel shelf. I asked the dealer, "Who traded her in?" He gave me the guy's 'phone# so I rang him and sure enough the old shelf was in his shed and you can guess the condition! Picked it up but checked out ebay and ebay UK motors but good parcels shelves are becoming hard to find, and expensive to buy and ship. So I decided to have a go at the old one. Didn't take any pics but the reason it was dicarded was bad damage to the edges where it rests on the fixed side shelves, carpet torn off, "hinge" destroyed, no hangers and just generally poor. I'm surprised the previous owner didnt take it to the tip.
First job was to repair the carpet and torn/broken/split composite material.
I had to choose the right glue so I trialed a variety on small pieces of split shelf. Contact adhesive, PVA and Araldite. Surprisingly, PVA came out best. I penetrated the shelf well, set hard and dried clear, but after gluing I still didn't trust the repaired shelf edges for strength. Out came the tinsnips and I cut two pieces of galv. steel sheet that were lying around the diary workroom. These were then shaped and bent so that the fitted the contours of the edge of the shelf. The strips were then pop rivetted to the metal strip at either end of the shelf. Before fixing I applied contact adhesive to ensure a good bond to the shelf.
Next I used contact to stick the carpet back onto the composite. Luckily, there were few tears and no holes, so this went really well.
I used some "Export" black aerosol to spray paint the underneath of the shelf and then turned my attention to the "hinge". Placement of the carpet and black-and-white elasticated straps is crucial to getting the shelf to sit right and the hatch to close without jamming it so I spent some time playing with it until I got it right. It's important to contact the carpet to the rear edge of the metal strip of the shelf. After this, I bought some hangers from an ebay seller for $4 and the shelf is a goer! Ok, so it's not absolutely original but it works and you would have to peer closely underneath to see the metal strips.
(If you have any restoration or repair stories it would be great if you could spend the time to post them. You could be really helping someone!)

http://home.iprimus.com.au/brackie/vw/shelf1small.jpg
http://home.iprimus.com.au/brackie/vw/shelf2small.jpg

[el_foolio]

yeah brackie, mine was the same, i originally took it out, because it was so ugly, but i soo realised i would need it for mounting speakers, because i have yet to discover a good way of mounting speakers in my doors (other than my most recent idea, to make new door insert panels. and put 6x9's on the lower left, as there is a perfect hole for thme) but anyway, i intend to recarpet my parcel shelf (and dooer inserts) but for the moment i sprayed the existing 'carpet' matt black, and reinforced them.
finally if anyone has any speaker ideas (front doors) let me know, because other than finding shorther window winders, i have nothing, because i cant put spacers in.

[Golf Loon]

You can put round speakers top left on drivers door, under 1/4 window and the windows work ok. There is a hole there too.

Or extend the brackets for the back shelf and fit speakers there. You could also trim down the parcel shelf to fit, thus cutting off all the badness.

[el_foolio]

wow good idea, i will check that out tommorow

[Golf Loon]

Its not original, but very effective.

http://xs33.xs.to/pics/05240/P3080029.JPG.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs33&d=05240&f=P3080029.JPG)

If your paccel shelf was weak at the edges, trim it down a bit and it would still look pretty stock.

[el_foolio]

ill post some pics up of my solution in the next few days

[gldgti]

for rear speaker mountins, i just put them in my timber parcel shelf htat i made (see webiste blah blah.)

front doors were trickier however. i managed to fit Rado 5.25" round speakers in the front doors at the bottom front corners where the holes are, however the winders did just interfere with the speaker. luckily however, the rado speakers are a fairly flush fit so it didnt matter much.

earlier this year i made new door inserts for all my doors. i ised 3mm plywood as the base material, and glued some 6mm foam rubber sheeting ontop, then glued black vynyl onto this. no pids yet, but frankly, they look extremely good, are soft, cut down on road noise and are lighter than the originals. i even used the original plastic clips to mount the panels, so no ugly scrwes etc.

what i was getting to is that when i did this, i was able to move the speakers further into the corner, so that the peakers no longer interfere with the window winders, regulator mechanism etc. glueing a bit of carpet underlay to the inside of the dorr directly behind the speaker improved sound quality too!

I have 4 speakers in the golf now, all cheap ones: 2 6x9's in the back in my rear parcel shelf (no longer the 6" in the pics), and the 2 5.25's in the front.

I kid you not, my car is the best sounding 4 speaker system i have ever come across, and i've seen some really expesive set ups with 4 speakers before. nothing comes close to the amount of bass you can get if you use the rear parcel shelf/back seat area as a giant speaker box.

thats why all those silly ppl use sub woofers :P

one of these days i'll show you guys pics....when i can get my hands on a digital camera for a few days...

[el_foolio]

ripped my parcel shelf out yesterday. now im running: jaycar 6" kevlar splits in the front doors (top right, below qaurter windows) and 6" jaycar's in the rear doors (bottom right (theres 6: holes there) and 4" jaycars in the side parcels

[static1800]

My parcel shelf has given way under the weight of my 6x9's the fact that there in speaker boxe's dont help either :D
all the screws are poping out from the back of the seat.
Ive just resorted to not opening the boot until i sort it out, ive got a spare in good nick any suggestions?

[Golf Loon]

Just make a wooden parcelshef, Golf ones are flat anyway, cover with cloth or carpet and dont connect it to the boot. Thus you open the boot and lift the shelf manually. Dont cut up any good parcelshelfs, there are not many left as it is.

[static1800]

Update: Parcel shelf = completly stuffed, is now hanging verticaly behind rear seat. Plans to make a new one have been delayed so many times now... :roll: i think i will make a similar thing up to how Dubsta's MkII a manuel lift like loon suggested, but with those latch things on the sides, any idea where i can get those or even what the hell they're called?

[XXX-1.8T]

On the weekend i did my stereo install.

What i did was get an og speaker for the front dash from Syncro and install it along with my Blaupunkt deck.

As im an originality nut like Brackie i had 2 5" Jaycar speakers with integrated tweeters that i wanted to install without cutting any door trims or parcel shelfs.

What i did was unscrew the 2 shelfs next to the parcel tray and stripped the carpet from them. Used a jig saw with a head that cuts plastic to cut the holes as i was cutting i aimed not to cut the bracing that was on the plastic.

Screwed the speakers in and covered the speakers with the carpet. Because the tweeters were raised very high i cut circles in the carpet so the tweeters can protroud. Now all u see is these little tweeters sitting on top of those shelfs.

Systems sounds good very happy with the set up.

[Antdragonist]

hey, just wondering
ive got a mk1, has 2 parcel shelves in it from when i bought it recently,
- 1 with 2 x speaker holes in it an 1 original

im not much of a fan of the parcel shelves but if im going to use one id rather the one without holes - EXCEPT the woods slightly fraying at one end.
any tips on how to neaten it up would be sweet,
but yeah, either shelf wont be stayin in anyway, just be nice to make it better in the mean time.

cheers.

[86gti]

hey, just wondering
ive got a mk1, has 2 parcel shelves in it from when i bought it recently,
- 1 with 2 x speaker holes in it an 1 original

im not much of a fan of the parcel shelves but if im going to use one id rather the one without holes - EXCEPT the woods slightly fraying at one end.
any tips on how to neaten it up would be sweet,
but yeah, either shelf wont be stayin in anyway, just be nice to make it better in the mean time.

cheers.

Heya Dom!
Post up a pic of where its damaged...maybe some epoxy or f-glass and some glue might help.

[JP_Aircooled_TDi]

I am trying to make a rear parcel shelf for my Mk1 (as it was missing when I bought the car), and I am a using a large piece of card board and cutting it down to size to make a template for the real thing.

Can anyone help me with the dimensions of an original parcel shelf and a pic of how it looks in the car? As I am trying to get an original look, and make as big a shelf as possible.

Thanks in advance as any help is greatly appreciated.

[Golf Loon]

Hey JP
Do you have to side mounted brackets?
That will influence how big your shelf can be.
I have seen onew with timber side brackets and plywood top which looked ok.
I`m selling one in the for sales if you want to see how it looks.

[DAR32]

I used to own a Citigolf in South Africa. it was an brand new original mk1 GTI with the 1.8l fuel injection engine. In South Africa they still make Mk1's today. This was about 10 years ago. I had a free air sub in the backboard with Mids and tweeters mounted in the rear doors, mids in the front doors tweeters mounted higher up. The backboard was on a Chipboard carpeted in boot matting and attached to the rear seat just like the original backboard. it worked better than the original as it did not rattle around and there were two sponge pieces attached to the boot that held it in place perfectly. The 16mm chip board was solid and had no vibrations at all. The only change in recent times to this shape was the bumpers and dashboard. The dash I had in my car (CTI) was the exact replica of the orginal GTI with the gauges down below.

Its really easy to make a backboard and the size is about 20mm longer than the measurement of the plastic moulded side panels that the board is supposed to rest on. (If that makes sense to you guys)

[revnit]

Hey guys a little off topic but its not to far off :) I've been though the parcel shelf debate i had a complete parcel shelfs setup in my car but i don't like the look of them and all the other issues that came along brittle plastic brackets missing mounts sagging center etc..etc.. so i went a different direction ive made custom parcel shelf setups before but decided to do it this way it doesn't suit everyone but i like the look alot better :biggrin:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7228/rearfloordi3.jpg

[mikinoz]

build me the same and i will buy it from you it looks that good! top effort

[ICEDIST]

This is my custom parcel shelf and 6x9 Side-boxes (i want to trademark these !!) The boot is not complete in these images at this stage... To finish it off I built a new (slightly raised) floor so all the audio cables, and the spare wheel could be accessed. I have a removable Vibe subwoofer pre-fab enclosure, and a Vibe amplifier that is mounted on the right had side 6x9 box. All-in-all quite neat. Not over the top and all done in the oem carpet finish to make it blend in. The install is now complete, but I have been a bit lazy with the camera !

[GRN_VAGN]

i just made a quick one of these for a Mk1.

Had to get the plastic side pieces off a member here ;)

I then cut a sheet of Plyboard to size, cut out holes for speakers.
I used a length of aluminum with holes cut in it and a few nuts and bolts to hold the shelf to the carpet "hinge".

The i chucked a rug over it all and bam. rear speakers on the cheap.

Though i will remake it later on with a thicker board, i can see mine breaking in a few months :P. or ill add a thick piece of wood as a brace. either way i have the whole lot there, so making a new one will be easy ;)

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7616/photo0594w.jpg
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5868/photo0593i.jpg