Since my car was broken into, I am not willing to put another amp in until I can get some physical protection. I have a 99EX coupe, and there's plenty of space that the spare tire isn't occupying. I figure that I can weld a plate from left to right, maybe 1/8 inch thick and weld some nuts/studs in with pentagonal heads to hold a top, vented plate in place.

Now for the questions. I've read up about car bodies nowadays being made of tempered steel. Does this apply to the chassis? Would I need to be particularly careful welding there for burning through or warping? What about the proximity to the gas tank? (I could weld a box with similar characteristics instead of a whole partition, but the gas tank factor still comes into play.) Do you have any better ideas? I will probably think of more questions as I get answers...I've had this idea for about two months now..

Thanks.

 

I wanted to make an area in the rear, much like you are talking about, to locate some "stuff". Here is a photo of the preliminary box. There is now a metal cover plate that is not easy to remove, protecting the stuff within.



I had a sheet metal shop bend up the side plates (just a straight "U" shape), I cut them to fit, and then pop rivited it to the floor.

Be carefull that you don't drill a hole into the gas tank and pop rivit it to the floor! (D'OH)

Wes

 

Once again, I'd personally prefer welded construction. Those rivets could come up with a screwdriver or crowbar. What did you use to cut that metal? It looks really clean.

 

I use a Mikita grinder with 4" cut-off disk for most of my cutting and shaping. Then clean it up with a small sanding disk on a small 90 degree air grinder.

I'll admit that welding it in place would be better than aluminum pop rivits, however the cover plate is in reality more of an issue. That's the first thing that a thief would attack. Before welding, I'd option for steel pop-rivits. Then there is the issue that the floor pan isn't all that thick.

I'm not going to go into how I'm attaching the cover plate due to it being the "soft" part of this box. It would be possible to make up a hinged plate with locking latch, however I see the problem as just making it a time consuming issue for the thief. It's ALWAYS a matter of time and a thief is only willing to spend a small amount of it.

As long as it takes tools that the normal thief wouldn't carry, you should be reasonably covered. If you don't think about it this way, with the tools I've got in the garage, I'd bet I can get into anything you can build in a matter of 5 minutes (most likely trashing what you have within the box).

Wes

 

I checked out the spare tire compartment again, and I have plenty of space. Probably 12+ inches and 30 inches wide, so plenty of room for amps. Maybe enough for a 300/4, 1000/1 and 200W CB booster.

For those with TIG experience, maybe Engloid
I want to make the partition out of 1/16" steel. Should I have any trouble welding this to the body? Any idea how thick the spare tire compartment "bowl" is? What sizes tungsten and filler would you recommend?

Once reinforced, this box WILL take longer than five minutes to get into with a crowbar.

 

Be careful with water in the trunk. I had some get in my CRX and bro bro had water ice up in the trunk of his GSR.

Food for thought.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll be a little careful and strategic about where I place the ventillation holes. There will be a lip and a plate that goes over the box, so if I had something in there that generated no heat, which is definitely not the case, I could totally seal the thing.