MGB Trunk Carpet (Part 1)

When I did the speaker box, I bought 2 4-foot by 6-foot rectangles of relatively inexpensive carpet designed for carpeting a trunk. With the speaker box completed (See Car that Goes Boom 1 and 2), I had most of the carpet left. So, I figured I would use it for it's originally intended purpose. Today's post covers the fun of forming templates.

For those of you in the US, hapy day-after-tax-day. If your 2018 taxes were anything like mine, you are also wondering where that rumored tax cut went. I can't believe how much higher my tax burden was this year. Thanks for nothing mr trump. Anyway, back to carpet templating.

When I did the speaker box, I used a roll of yellow poster paper to construct a template. I carefully covered the 5 sides, trimming and fitting around the various weird shaping I did to make it fit into the trunk on that little shelf. Once fit, I carefully cut the paper off of the box with a razor-blade. I transferred the template onto the carpet, cut it out and it fit just as I'd planned. It worked so well for the positive 3-dimensional object, I wondered if it would work for a negative 3-dimensional object... and a larger one at that.

Forming Templates
I started with the firewall. The old interior had a black cardboardy cover that was wrapped with vinyl. I figured it was a fair approximation so I traced it onto some of that yellow paper and cut it out. It fit fairly well, only it was wider, which makes sense. The cockpit is wider than the trunk. So, I cut one end off and I was able to get it to fit. I made up the difference with more paper and then moved to the wheel arches, papering and attaching with blue painters tape. I did small sections so I didn't have to wrinkle the paper, rather, I cut so the template would be more accurate. I decided to stop at the weld seam that runs up the center of the wheel arches, knowing that I could attach carpet scraps on the other side of the seam if I wanted to.

Once the arch reached the rear floors, though, I extended the template all the way to the rear quarter panels. I thought it would have a more finished look with carpet there, even if the tire jack or a toolbox sat on top of it. Last, I addressed the little shelf, the side hip bits and the central floor. I made cut-outs for the various things that stuck out, like the little cap where the speaker cable came through, the wiring harnesses, the spare tire mount, the fuel tank vents and filler. When I was done, I had a bright yellow and green trunk (I ran out of yellow so I switched to green) looking like it was some kind of homage to the University of Oregon. Then came the fun part: deciding how I would section out the carpet so it could be installed, but also so a section of the main floor could be removed for easy cleaning.

I decided to use the inner edges of the wheel arches as one dividing line. Then, the little hip wall along the edges extended all the way back to the rear made the next section. I also marked around the little shelf and the rectangle that run over the little dome and then around the rear firewall. The rest, from the bottom of the shelf back was one large section, so it could come out as one piece. The other pieces were going to be glued down, so they need to fit well and not have obvious seams. Since the trunk is symmetrical, I had matching pieces for the 2 sides (wheel arch and hip-wall). From these 2 cut pieces, I was able to make one good, reversible template. The dome and shelf carpets were solid templates as well. The large main section needed some tailoring, though, so it would have a nice rounded edge at the rear.

That's it for today. I know this seems a little short, but really, this took a great deal of time. I need to complete the foil-backed noise reduction installation as well as some thin foam before I get to the carpets, so it may be a little while before the next post on this topic comes out. Thanks, as always, for following along--

The Wagon Returns

Quick post today, I think. Before I start, Hapy 21st birthday to T. It has been an amazing ride, and you have grown into an incredible person. So hapy to have had you in my life, my friend.

Some Background
Late last fall, I remarked on how many cars we removed from our driveway in a short amount of time (See Herd Thinning). One of those cars, K's 2004 JettaWagon has returned. Back then, it had sat for almost 18 months because of transmission problems. He was collecting money to do a 5-speed swap, but that proved too elusive. Between the changing prices for a kit from folks on TDIClub to difficulty finding someone willing to do the job (much less at a reasonable price), he resolved to fixing the transmission and selling it. $1500US later, the transmission is better than new and one of the front axles has been replaced.

On the inside, the driver seat had lost some of the leather on the seat bottom cushion. Based on his conversation with an upholsterer, that was probably caused by a faulty seat-heater. This news gave me immediate pause, since I have just completed the seats in our beloved Oliver. I will just make sure that the seat-heaters are on an ignition-switched circuit so they shut off when the car does. Anyway, K had the driver seat re-upholstered in a fairly-close color match. It's not perfect, though, and both Boo and I can see the difference. Which wouldn't matter if we hadn't been the ones buying K's car.

Snow Flashback
You see... years ago, when Boo and I shared that old condo we hit the mountain a lot. Pretty much, if we had the boys, we were going to play in the snow. The condo was just too small for anything else with 4 boys. One of those night-ski nights was especially icy at SkiBowl. I wiped out trying to navigate off of the Lower Bowl run onto Low Road when I hit solid ice (See Holiday approacheth). I landed on my left elbow and even now, over 6 years later, it still doesn't feel quite right.

That same night, Boo came flying down Lower Reynolds and as she entered the "whoopdies" near the bottom she hit some ice and landed on her back and backside with her right arm reaching back, hurting her shoulder. Like my elbow, her shoulder still isn't right. It was so close to the holidays, but we wanted to have her shoulder checked out. By the time she could get on-schedule for an MRI, it was Christmas Eve, so we didn't exactly get the A team. I have long concluded that the initial scan and scan reading was not done well, but every subsequent discussion starts with a specialist saying "they didn't find anything on the MRI", not bothering to look at the results themselves. That's the American medical system at work. Anyway, since her shoulder acts up from time to time, driving a stick-shift in rush-hour bumper-to-bumper, rubber-banding traffic greatly aggravates it.

2dot0
For a short time, we had a nice Jetta sedan with an auto-tranny, but the hated 2-dot-slow engine See Welcome 2dot0). Boo drove that, and greatly appreciated the non-stick for her shoulder. She loves to drive a manual, mind you, just the hurt shoulder really took away a lot of that joy. Remember that I failed to recognize the state of the timing belt and it snapped days before we were scheduled to move (See Oh Snap). So, we sold the car pretty much for what I'd paid for it, leaving Boo back in a stick-shift car. Until now.

JettaWagon
When K started talking about selling his car, Boo and I talked about helping him out, and helping ourselves along the way. Flash has over 210k miles on him. His interior was a horrible mess when I bought him, and the body has taken a lot of abuse. The JettaWagon, on the other hand, had about 130k miles on it, and was in incredibly nice shape; much nicer shape than Flash was when I bought him. So, we bought it. Now, Boo has a auto-tranny TDI JettaWagon.

Like with any new acquisition, there were a few things that needed to be fixed. The battery in the remote is dying. The brake lights all fire up when the headlights are on. The leather seats don't match. That's it so far.

I replaced the single-filament bulbs that had been installed with dual filament ones and the brake/tail lights work properly now. I did note that in the book for bulbs at NAPA, they incorrectly reference a single filament bulb. So, this is probably common for DIY folks.

Anyway, rambling post today. More car content is being generated. Maybe, if the weather is willing, I'll be able to pull the cover off of Hapy and evaluate him for Summer fun. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Speaker Box Install Finish

I left off the sound system with some test fires and some lingering to-do's. Today's post covers the completion of those steps.

Shorter RCA Cables
The first and easiest to-do was replacing the RCA cables from the head unit to the amp. I originally used cables that were thick and over a meter long (about 4 feet total length). With the head and amp so close together, this left me with lots of extra cable looped all around. I found a vendor on eBarf and had 18" cables delivered. These were perfect, leaving me enough extra cable to maneuver things, but without a bunch of extra to deal with.

Ring Terminal Ground

original light location
note the fuel tank vent / hinge springs

When I first put things together, I didn't have a ring terminal for the ground wire. We were in the middle of a late-winter snowstorm, so getting to the corner hardware store was not in the cards. I didn't want to stop my efforts so I slapped together a ground using a washer and some electrical tape. It did the job, and once he weather improved, trading this hack-job for a real ring terminal was easier than trading out the RCA cables.

With those two things done, the front end of the system was complete. I had a couple of nagging issues in the trunk to deal with, though.

Trunk Light
Back in the boot, I had the speakerbox fit onto the little (less than 4 inches deep) shelf, and against the lots-of-holes-in-it rear fire wall. The speaker was propped up by an old sub woofer that I wasn't going to use. It served the purpose of showing how the speaker would sit, but that wasn't a viable long-term solution. What it revealed was that the trunk light, which sits in the center of the trunk opening furthest forward, would be mostly blocked by the box. It lit up the top of the box beautifully, but the trunk was now mostly dark. So, I moved it.

new light just above latch

The trunk light housing is held to the "beam" that runs over the top of the little shelf by 2 Phillips head screws (picture at right). With these removed, and the purple-circuit fuse pulled, the housing can be lowered. I set the bulb aside and pulled out the feeder-wires from the housing. Those wires were then back-fed through the openings in the body until they were hanging loose by the right-side hinge where the switch is. I cut the 2 wires around the midway point, and then started experimenting with new locations. I decided to mount it to the underside of the trunk lid, just aft of the mount-points for the MG medallion which sits on the trunk top side. There is a cross-member here which provided a place to put the screws through without creating through-holes.

I sent the wires from the housing through the trunk-lid cavity, and found I needed about a foot of wire to re-connect it to the switch. A few minutes of scrounging, cutting, wiring and taping later and the circuit was reconnected. I stuffed the wires into the trunk lid cavity and cable-tied the wire bundle closest to the hinge to the hinge so they wouldn't get hung up on future parcels in the trunk. I replaced the bulb, put the plastic cover on and replaced the purple circuit fuse. Tada! Light fills the trunk better than it did before and the light itself is not in your eyes anymore. I will need to take care with objects shifting in the trunk, though, since the housing is now down near the latch.

Strapping It Down

With the light solved, I needed to create a means of attaching the speakerbox to the car. I want the box to be easily removable, in case we want good sounds at picnics, or if I ever want to use it in Hapy. I also wanted to minimize ant further impact into the storage space in the trunk. So, adding to the little shelf or adding drop-feet to the box were not options. Instead, I thought through options to hold the rear top edge up and forward rather than extra support from below.

I got a spool of 1" nylon strapping. These are used on backpack shoulder straps or gym bags and are super strong. I cut 2 1-foot lengths, and looped one end of each around the tank vent / hinge-springs that run the width of the trunk opening at the front edge. These looped from above, with about 1" of overhang below. I super-glued the edge of the 1" overhang to the longer side, and tested by pulling on them. To these straps, I threaded on the female side of a nylon strap buckle. Now, I had something to attach to in the car, the speakerbox needed something too.

I bought some footman loops for the box-end. I put one footman loop on each end of the rear side of the box, 1.25 inches from the top and 2 inches from the edge. I repeated the nylon strapping process I did in the trunk with the overhang hidden against the box. I threaded the male end of the strap buckle onto these. After a little wrestling and fiddling, the box sets and is free-standing-ish. To install the box, I put the bottom front edge on the little shelf and then lift the box upright while holding the car-side straps to the sides. Once the box is upright, I click the buckles together.

There are always little things that could be changed or improved, but I think, for now, the work is pretty much done. I changed the way the wires connect through to the speaker for greater ease of install, for example, by adding in RCA connectors between the speaker and the speaker wires. That hardly warranted a post, but it was completed once the parts arrived.

Top Down Test Drive
We had a taste of spring with sunny skies and temps in the upper 60F's (about 20C) so Boo and I took Oliver out for a quick spin. I had installed the passenger seat (not post-worthy, it was a basic install with no discoveries nor bungles), so we were ready. Boo hadn't been on a ride except for a short drive down the street and back last summer so we were way overdue. I dropped the top, and pulled into the drive where Boo hopped in. We drove around the local neighborhood and easily chatted over the slight wind noise. We tested the sound too, and while it doesn't sound as good when it is sitting still in the garage, it sounds way better than I expected. The bass is full, the highs are present and the mid's cut through. Yes, there is wind shear, and some of the signal is lost, but most of that loss is filled back in when the volume is turned up. Boo and I agreed that the new seats are super comfortable, and the car would be perfect for a road trip. We just need a reason and a destination.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along--