Hey guys, I'm building up the boot of my celica and I'm a bit stuck as to how to secure the panels. Basically I'm planning to trim it all in black carpet, have a door on the right side panel that is hinged for access to my fuel system, and a hinged door on the bottom for access to the spare wheel/tools/jack. And at some stage an amp mounted to the back wall/panel, and a sub mounted in the left side panel.

This is basically the stage I'm at. It's not fibreglass just MDF again because I only have 3 odd weeks til I need my car on the road (getting my license ) and I'm only mid way through an engine conversion haha.







And this is the kind of thing I'm aiming for:




My problem is, I want all the panels to be mounted securely, the two floor panels on each side are screwed in, and they will be trimmed while in the car, but I need to be able to trim the other panels and then install them, but I don't want to have any fasteners showing, as it will all be carpeted. I've scoured threads on here and elsewhere and searched but I haven't really found any info. Any ideas?

Cheers, Matt

If you have time look at a few of the install threads........... usually people will 'liquid nail' pieces of wood to the floor of the boot to make an even surface and then screw the mdf into that.

read through Damo95's thread im pretty sure he has plenty of build up pics of a similar sort of boot in there.

http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums...66513&st=45

Thats what I did as well, used liquid nails to glue a strip of wood right across the floor and made it level, and I've screwed the floor into that. Thats fine because I can cover the floor with carpet while its in the car, and then add the side and back panels after. My problem is I need to cover the other panels with carpet outside of the car and then somehow mount them in there without having screws showing through the carpet. But I had a read through that thread and he is one very talented guy. Nice install!

I got some more work done on the boot today. Cut out the door for the spare wheel and tools and the door to access the fuel setup, and I also made the panels that cover the tail light housings.







And I'm still trying to figure out how I am going to mount everything without any type of fastener showing through the carpet. I read somewhere that someone just cut U shapes into the carpet around each screw so that it could flap up. I trialed this and also just a slit in the carpet which takes more effort getting the screw in but looks a lot neater and won't flap up.



I took a photo of when they were screwed in properly but you can't really see what it looks like. You can still see a faint line where the slit is but its not all that noticeable. I wonder how much more obvious it would be when the panels are installed and there are quite a few slits around.

Cheers, Matt

thats what i've done in many installs...

cut a slit in the carpet, screw it down and cover it up... too easy..

the way you have done it is fine for carpet, im just adding this so you know for the future, but if you were to use vinyl or a painted panel that wouldnt be an option, so ive also found that you can use speaker grille plugs...you know on your home speakers, when you POP the grille off, it has ball shapes on the frille side that clip into a cup shape on the actual speaker cabnet, well these are available from jaycar electronics, they are fairly cheap, you get about 30 peices, 15 of each for about $10...

so its pretty obvious how these would be used so i wont go into that, just be aware that they need to be recessed in to the panel for glueing and a flush fit....it will be obvious if youll get away with using these on your particular install, but they would work with what your doing not a problem as you have room to work behing it, i mean you can mount a peice for the cup shape to glue too, then stick the ball shape to your panel and pop them together..the best way to do it is, mount your first clip to the part that will hold your panel on, then pop the other half of the clip in to it, then put some liquid paper or lip stick,etc on the end of the peice and then push the panel against it, this will give you a mark as to where to mount your next clip in peice...its not to hard and even ive they are a lil bit out of wak they still pop together..they hold fairly tight so they wont come off when driving, you wouldnt mount an amp straight to it, but you can screw the amp on and thru into another solid mounting behind the trim peice,,,,well i hope that all makes sense, if not just ask, ill clear it up.....cheers, BRAD!!!

Thats the way to go with carpet. Make sure you countersink the holes so it all sits down flush. Get a black marker and colour in the area beneath the cut, that way any gap that may show up will be dark and you probably won't even notice it.
Then secure it all with some contact adhesive.

or go 1 step further..

screw the screws part way down into an offcut piece of mdf and paint them black with a spraycan...
thats something i've done often, and with different colours too..

If you can access behind the panels (through your access hatches), could you install some 1" strip on the floor panel then screw the side panels to the strip from behind?
Then the side panels could be screwed to each other from behind too, sort of like a butt joint.