Remove rear seats for extra storage space?

FlaCarrera · 07-17-2002, 05:25 AM

Because there is little chance of a human occupying the rear seats, has anybody converted that area into a (nice) storage compartment after removing the seats? Seems like a good weight savings at the same time. Should be refittable back to original. Pictures & comments welcomed.
Thanks...
Ted in Sunny So. Fla
86 Carrera Targa Blk/Blk
Fac short shift, Cone filter, Autothority chip

Adam · Adam's Garage

Just fold the seats down, you get a nice storage shelf!

And you could still throw young-uns or midgets in the back if you needed to...

g930shaw · 07-17-2002, 06:22 AM

Hey. Porsche did a make a rear strorage shelf for the 911. It was a rare option. They come up once in a while at a swap meet. They're not much of a weight saver though. If you eliminate the rear seat backs, you'd save 16lbs. The seat belts are 5lbs. Better still, if you very carefully peel away the carpet in the rear seat wells, you'll find the thick padding that is form fitted to the metal unibody. This padding weighs in at 24lbs. Just carefully reglue the carpet, w/ contact cement to the metal. With a little care it will look great and no one will be any the wiser. Next, the insulation under the rear deck shelf weighs 12lbs. The deck weighs 10 lbs w/o speakers and could be replaced w/ a bound OE carpet, like an RS.
We're now up to 16 + 5 + 24 + 10 + 12= 67lbs.
You'll easily feel the difference when driving. And the engine will sound better!
There are many ways to eliminate weight in the 911 w/o being obvious. I shaved 300lbs from my '78 SC. The car was cat like and responsive! Now that I have an '85 930, I've taken 200lbs out of this. Another 120lbs. will be had by the end of the summer. I know you asked about storage space, but by eliminating the rear seats and some other goodies, you can hav a better 911!

FlaCarrera · 07-17-2002, 11:08 AM

Thanks Shaw...
Even the weight dieting w/o the last 12 Lbs still =about a 2% weight reduction....not bad for just the semi useless rear seat area. The heavy (24 Lb) foam is proably sound dampener which I'd be tempted to replace with some sort of closed cell foam core material so the interior doesn't become too noisy. A carpet kit is coming up soon so your hints were timely.

Cheers
Ted in So Fla.
86 Carrera Targa

Kurt B · 07-17-2002, 12:29 PM

The guy above is about right. For me, the seat backs, sound deadening material, and seat belts weighed 33 lbs total. that doesn't include the sound deadening pad that goes on the shelf...which was probably another 10 or so at least so 43 lbs.

I got new carpet, but you can just put it all back carefully, and you'll save some weight. I put the seat cushions back in the spaces because they're so light they're almost negligible.

john walker's workshop · 07-17-2002, 12:32 PM

on my 87 cab, i made a shelf from 3/4" particle board. the front piece is angled back from the floor to the front edge of the top panel, about the same angle as the front seat, and holds 2 10" woofers, which are almost hidden by the front seats. some black carpet, and you're done. make patterns from cardboard first.

turbo dave · turbo dave's Garage

I have this, it is pretty nice to have:

FlaCarrera · 07-17-2002, 01:32 PM

Hmmm...Thanks Turbo Dave. That 70s factory option would be easy to recreate out of Airex & fiberglass sandwich. (strong and light) Don't understand the door opening in front....seems awkward. I picture 2 hinged hatches on top. The entire box could be tacked in w/fiberglass tape or 5200 on the inside, finished off w/OE carpet and bingo, nice full-width storage compartment invisible to prying eyes. Could even be lockable. The whole thing could be easily removed for future sale purposes. Maybe we could get somebody to build them out of fiberglass..not complicated tooling.

Thanks for the feedback.
Ted in So Fla
86 Carrera Targa

sbrown.nw · sbrown.nw's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

on my 87 cab, i made a shelf from 3/4" particle board. the front piece is angled back from the floor to the front edge of the top panel, about the same angle as the front seat, and holds 2 10" woofers, which are almost hidden by the front seats. some black carpet, and you're done. make patterns from cardboard first.

Hi John,

I liked reading about what you did on your 87 and I would like to do something similar on my 72 to mostly reduce weight. I don't have any seat belts on the rear seats and I have a harness bar back there anyway, so they are useless. Do you have any idea what the labor would be in hours to remove the seats, strip the heavy sound padding off the interior and build something very similar to what you did?

Anyone else want to chime in on what they did, plus what went well vs what didn't work?

Thanks,

Scott

fanaudical · fanaudical's Garage

I removed my rear seats and built a storage unit. It provides a flat platform just above the hump with a rail in front to prevent things from sliding off. I have some doors in front of the "butt buckets" which now serve as small storage cubbies. It works fairly well. I'll see about taking some pics.

ClickClickBoom · ClickClickBoom's Garage

Mine:
Rear seat delete

cjannelli · cjannelli's Garage

I built mine
Chris

Kraftwerk · 09-19-2015, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by g930shaw

Hey. Porsche did a make a rear strorage shelf for the 911. It was a rare option. They come up once in a while at a swap meet. They're not much of a weight saver though. If you eliminate the rear seat backs, you'd save 16lbs. The seat belts are 5lbs. Better still, if you very carefully peel away the carpet in the rear seat wells, you'll find the thick padding that is form fitted to the metal unibody. This padding weighs in at 24lbs. Just carefully reglue the carpet, w/ contact cement to the metal. With a little care it will look great and no one will be any the wiser. Next, the insulation under the rear deck shelf weighs 12lbs. The deck weighs 10 lbs w/o speakers and could be replaced w/ a bound OE carpet, like an RS.
We're now up to 16 + 5 + 24 + 10 + 12= 67lbs.
You'll easily feel the difference when driving. And the engine will sound better!
There are many ways to eliminate weight in the 911 w/o being obvious. I shaved 300lbs from my '78 SC. The car was cat like and responsive! Now that I have an '85 930, I've taken 200lbs out of this. Another 120lbs. will be had by the end of the summer. I know you asked about storage space, but by eliminating the rear seats and some other goodies, you can hav a better 911!

This guy is spot-on. You can also sell your rear seats and any other part you remove for extra cash to buy an oil cooler or upgraded suspension etc.

jeffbottman · 09-20-2015, 07:25 AM

Hard to quantify, but how much louder is the cabin with all that sound insulation matting removed?

darrin · 09-20-2015, 08:59 AM

jeff -- a lot of people add a layer of "modern" sound insulation after removing the heavy old stuff -- here's a thread -- probably a bunch more/newer Replace sound deadner with what...not Dynamat??

sbrown.nw · sbrown.nw's Garage

Realized today that Cantrell did not write in a driver's weight when they filled out the corner balance worksheet. Called them today and confirmed that they added 200 lbs (10 more than they should have) to the driver's seat before doing the corner balance. This puts me at 2450 lbs with a half a tank of gas and no targa top, which is right around where I expected to be with all the lightening work I've done on the car during my ownership history.

I am still considering taking out the rear seat backs and maybe having an interior shop put together some kind of heavy duty cargo net hammock-like setup back there.