Rear package shelf repair

[jman093]

Wanted to share this. I repaired/refinished the awful eyesore package shelf on one of my TGP's I'm restoring. I'm kind of proud of the job I did because I figured this all out on my own and want to share what I learned for everyone else who wants to refinish one.

 

I did this after finally concluding I was never going to come across a nice used or NOS package shelf for a TGP. I was just going to have to figure out how to re-do mine. It was probably the worst one I've ever seen. The cardboard backing was kind of rotten and had a nearly foot long crack in it. It was nearly split in two pieces. The carpet was also just as rotten. It was missing chunks of carpet completely and what carpet was there was hardly attached. Running your hand across the carpet would leave carpet fibers all over your hand. It was also faded into a putrid yellow color. Like I said, major eyesore.

 

The carpet I purchased is called "ozite". Found it online and it's fairly cheap. Just google it and there's a few websites that sell it. It is the correct carpet pile type and size and best of all is it has some stretch to it for molding it into shapes/crevices without wrinkling. Pro tip: Buy the cheap color sample chart first to match up the correct color you want. I learned this the hard way after buying the incorrect color twice. The color that very closely matched the original TGP tan is called "doeskin" and had a number of 2030.

 

Step one is removal. Get the whole shelf out of the car and remove the speaker grilles and seatbelt bezels. Be careful with them because the plastic is probably brittle with age. Then start peeling off all the old carpet. Despite it practically coming off on its own in so many places, this was more difficult to do than I thought, and it was so rotten it came off in a thousand pieces, not just one big piece. If your backing is as bad as mine, take care not to tear/damage it more. After it was all off, the board was still covered in old glue and leftover fibers. It may be alright to cover over this, but I went ahead and took a pneumatic grindier with a soft roloc disc and sanded it all off to fresh surface.

 

Step two for me was fixing that huge crack. I used a Bondo brand fiberglass repair kit. I think it was like $20 at Wal-Mart. I'm sure auto parts stores carry it as well. First time I've used this and even though it is not meant for this kind of repair, it worked REALLY well. Used it per the instructions. The stuff dries rock hard. The repaired area is flat and smooth, completely stiff, and far stronger than the original backing ever was. Pro Tip: Do this outdoors, or your entire house will smell awful for days.

 

Step three. Cut the piece of carpet to cover over the entire shelf with a few inches of overhang as it will tighten up as it's pushed into the crevices. Now comes glueing. Do not do any pre-cutting for the holes for the speakers, etc because the carpet will be stretching and shifting as you work it into the crevices. For the glue I used 3M headliner adhesive. I've used it many times for attaching carpet and headliner and the stuff is great. At $20-$25 a can it is expensive and this project will probably use a whole can or maybe a little more. I used a partial can I already had and an awful lot of a 2nd one I bought. There is cheaper stuff available, but IMO this is the best consumer stuff on the market. Use it per the instructions covering the entire carpet and board. Carefully get it set on straight, which is kind of difficult when everything is super tacky. Then start working/stretching the carpet down into all the crevices and corners. Get it pushed on hard and tight. If it's not stretched tightly into every corner, it won't look very neat, and as tightly as it is stretched, I wouldn't count on it staying glued down if it's not worked down hard over and over.

 

Step four. After letting it sit a day to make sure it had fully cured, I cut and trimmed the carpet. There's a couple holes to drill where there were previously holes for attachment. I trimmed with a razor blade. The edges of the board and the third brake light area I didn't bother trimming very closely as can be seen in the pics. Those areas are all covered by the interior, so I didn't spend extra time. The speaker grilles and seatbelt bezels do have to be trimmed closely to get the bezels/grilles to fit. Again, be gentle with brittle plastics.

 

And that's it. Taking my time and learning as I went, I have several hours in this project. Mine has a couple flaws and I could do a better job now that I know what I'm doing, but it looks pretty dang good. My only fear is that the tightly-stretched carpet will come unglued with time. It's been a few weeks in the car now and is still holding perfectly, so I'm confident it will last, but only time will tell.

 

Here's before and after:

 

 

 

 

 

[Dark Ride]

Wow! That does look nice! I'm going to be doing this soon when I rebuild the interior.

[Imp558]

Wow!

[redgrandprix]

That looks really nice!

 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

[GOT2B GM]

Looks great!

[White93z34]

Damn! That looks fantastic. I think my original package shelf disintegrated when I tried to remove it. I ended up using one from a 94-96 which is a slightly different shade. I might have to recover it now. 

[Heartbeat1991]

How much to do mine?  :-)

 

Nunzi, if you're going to recover it anyway, I have a TGP one you can have.  It's about the same condition as Jessie's before pic above.  If you're interested, I'll get you a pic of it.

[White93z34]

I'd take you up on it but I have misgivings of it making a trip through the mail without me getting a box of dust and a few loose pieces of plastic by the time it gets to me.

[pshojo]

that looks great! i'm going to need to do that too. 

[mfewtrail]

That looks awesome Jesse. Did your carpet samples include any shades of beechwood? Our factory interiors are listed as that though I'm sure doeskin and other colors match it very well as depending on brand, they may just be the same thing. I need to recover the package shelf on the Regal as it's been obliterated by the sun. When cleaning the rear window, it's like playing minesweeper. You don't want to get your hand or microfiber towel down to where it touches the package tray carpet or those fibers go everywhere. The headliner needs to be redone in it as well. I may post about both if I get around to them soon. 

[Heartbeat1991]

Can you post a pic of it installed so I can see the color match to the area behind the rear seats?

[rich_e777]

Dude that looks awesome. I want to say I recall that material awhile back when I did me rear shelf. I ended up going with something I found at a fabric store and used grey fabric paint to get it to match.