HOW TO: Rebuild/Repair your Rear Cargo Cover

[techboy]

So this is a project 13 years in the waiting ... but I finally took to it this past week.

At purchase, my car had a perfect rear cargo cover, which I was excited about b/c in all the other Quest sI had owned they were damaged.  It was short-lived, b/c one month later a tree fell on my car, crushing the roof, hatch, ... and busting up my rear cargo cover.  Well, that was 13 years ago already, so here's how I finally rebuilt it:

Obviously remove the cover.  You can see where the branches of the tree punctured the cover.  I'm only repairing the lower section, but these steps could apply to rebuilding the whole thing if you needed to replace the fiberboard on the top section too.

I started by peeling back the carpet on the left and right sides.

Next, I flipped the cover over and peeled the carpet back.

Oh look, all these years later still finding glass from the tree incident .... lol.

Next, you'll need to drill out the rivets on the black hinge with a 3/16" bit.

Once all the rivets are drilled out you'll have the hinge free.

It still won't be free just yet though.  Flip the cover back over and you'll find there's a material strip stapled to the cover.  Grab your needle nose and pull the staples.

Then the fiberboard material will finally be free.

I had a scrap piece of 1/8 inch masonite laying around from a home project.  It was just big enough to use a replacement piece.

I simply used a sharpie and traced the outline on the masonite.  These piece had some spray paint on it from other project, but I didn't care b/c I was going to be painting it black anyway.

Next, use the hinge and mark the holes for the rivets.

Not shown, but next I drill the holes and cut it out the shape on a bandsaw.  I used some sandpaper on the edges quick just to smooth it over, but I didn't go crazy b/c there's no exposed edges of material, it's all covered by carpet.

Now I threw some paint on.

I quickly realized the black on the underside of the top section was not going to match anymore, so I tossed a coat of fresh black on the underside of that too so it all looked uniform.

Now it's time to go back the other way.  To reattach the carpet I purchased some Gorilla spray adhesive.  I've also used 3M Super 77 for projects like this, and that works really well too, FYI.  Don't start spraying things just yet though ....

BEFORE you spray adhesive the carpet and put the board back on, you need to put screws through the holes you drilled b/c you won't be able to access them once it's adhered to the carpet.  I just used simple machine screws to replace the rivets.

Flip it over carefully so your screws don't fall out.  Once you do that, spray the board and the back of the carpet and let it dry for a few seconds before putting it down.   I quickly dropped on washers and loosely threaded nuts on the screws.

Once the carpet is adhered well you can flip it upside down again and roll the remaining edges over.  Spray everything down with adhesive and it'll stick nice.

Lastly, re-attach the rubber gasket on the rear edge.  It just presses on.

Here it is re-installed in the car.  Much better.

Good luck.  It's a pretty easy little project.  You can do it.

 

 

 

[techboy]

Additional note:  The only other thing I might do yet is put some black paint on the machine screws to hide them.

[tux]

Nice work, did you get that nice factory bend in to follow the profile of the two side trim pieces?

Edited May 16, 2023 by tux

[techboy]

17 hours ago, tux said:

Nice work, did you get that nice factory bend in to follow the profile of the two side trim pieces?

Good question.  I did not. I guess if you had access to a steam bender you could bend plywood to get that little curve at the end. I used masonite which I knew going in had no flex to it. I wasn't sure if it was going to sit nice or not, but it sits just fine.

[TexasQuest]

Very nice work looks fantastic!