... a sheet of ply for my rear shelf, 48"x58"x1".

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/18468/dscf0008.jpg">

All I have to do is trace the original shelf and then have some help to cut and shape it. I have enough ply to make a 2nd shelf... anyone interested..? :-)

I think she's gonna make a rear shelf to hold
speakers. Which might not be a good idea in my
worthless opinion, but I'm gonna give it anyway!
I thought of doing the same thing, but it would be
easier to build a box out of the plywood, cover it
with carpet, and put it in the back. This way the
back of the car still looks stock with the cover
there. (The cover won't affect bass quality)
My idea would be to use the plywood for a false
floor in the back, put the subs and amps under it.

Just my $0.02, your mileage may vary.
Paul

... that's right, I am going to have the ply as the rear shelf to hold speakers. My options were to either have plywood, chosen. Do some alterations to the stock shelf, or have fiberglass/carbon fiber customed.

Once finished it will be <i>kinda</i> stock looking, all the speakers will be flush. Then it will be finished in grey cloth to match the interior of my car. I do also have another sheet of ply, ¼" thick, to make a false floor in the boot to hide the Amps and cd changer, and I will be able to change CD's!

When I get time I'm going to put the design in AutoCAD, so others can use my research.

Simpler to buy a shelf from junk yard?

One thing about getting older, hearing goes bad and you couldn't hear all the levels of sound if you had too. Keeps things cheaper. Lucky me.

1" thick plywwod!! for the whole shelf! you could mount an 18" stroker sub on that, well might not give the best acoustics but certainly strong enough!

My design for my 3-way 7 X 10s was to create a 3/4" thick mounting deck approx. 12" wide and the width of the parcel shelf suspended under a rectangular cutout in the shelf with bolts. The top of the parcel shelf has a rectangular frame covered with grey acoustic cloth screwed down from the underside.
The mounting deck supports a small 200w amp powering the speakers, the amp is small enough to be suspended upside down.

I remember making a shelf for a mate of mine. It took ages. That was out of 5/8" MDF which had to be traced, shaped and sanded. Looked great once the cloth was stretched over it - you could hardly tell that it wasn't stock.

The 1" Ply does sound a bit heavy duty, are the gas struts in the boot up to it? or are you just going to fix it in position?

Glad to hear that you are going to draw it up using AutoCAD - A girl after my own heart :P

BTW make sure you seal the edges of the ply with something (varnish?) so as the damp from the rear window doesnt get in. It'll start to peel otherwise.

And yeah, I'll be keeping a photo diary going...
... today, all that came were the fans (to cool the amps) and the relay (to turn them on)...

They will be mounted next to the amps in this fashion....

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/18468/fansonamp.jpg" border="1">

It's a lot of work just to listen to David Hasselhoff.... LOL<ul><li><a href="http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=417405369/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/artistid=HASSELHOFF*DAVID/itemid=427277">David Hasselhoff at CDNow.com</a></li></ul>

When you build the false floor, you're going to
put the amp into a "tunnel", meaning you will put
one fan at one end and one fan at the other end
with the amp in the middle. One fan will blow
into the box, one will put air out the other end, so you'll get a push/pull effect, creating a
continuous draw of air across the top of the amp.
Much more effective than having the fans just
blow on the amp.

Paul