Tubbing Out A Spare Tire Well.

[LSN2meBoom916]

I have recieved numerous requests & PMs about how to make a Fiberglass "tub" for a trunk/hatch spare tire well.

Here's how I does it.

First I make a cut-out roughly the shape of the trunk floor, making sure to remove only as much of that "floor" as it takes to get it down to a size/shape that will fit through the trunk/hatch opening.

In my case (Gen 3 Integra) I just leave the sides flat, about 3-5" out past the tire well opening.

If you look closely you can see this is not one solid peice but rather 4 pieces for the perimeter, with another 2 pieces attatched from underneath to bridge the corners/breaks in the pieces where they meet end to end/edge to edge.

The back piece just cut to take up "most" of that space, knowing it will get glassed in-so it doesnt have to be an exact copy of the bottom of the tire well, just mostly fill it.

Attached with screws/wood glue from above

Then I pull the wood out and start masking/foiling off the tire well...you can go crazy with ur blue tape if u want but I don't give a sh*t if there's blue tape that nevecomes out of the underside of this tub, no ones ever gonna see and if you wanna be that anal you can always sand it off after you pull the tub.

Once it's all masked/foiled off and smoothed out-I use an old rag/cloth to slide across the foil and rub it all over/pushing all the foil down tight into the cracks.

Then you put the "Frame" or wood part back in over the top of the foil/taped off bottom area.

I always give a decent 5-10" of overkill, outward with the tape/foil from where I will be glassing so I am sure I don't get runs of resin on the trunk floor.

[LSN2meBoom916]

I start with a generous layer of resin painted on b4 I lay any glass so that when I do drop the cloth/matt in there it will start soaking up the resin from below, then I paint more resin over the top to create a nice resin/mat sandwhich.

I start with the woven cloth to grab all the fine details of the trunk/tire well floor including the OEM sound deadener.

Once I start with the woven mat I tap the air bubbles out and make sure every part is well soaked in resin so when it cures it will be solid. For this process just think "Bob Ross" that hippy painter that liked to "tap in some color" when making his trees and bushes...same technique here, you keep loading your brush with resin instead of paint and just tap out the air bubbles whie pushing around the resin until it's distributed evenly.

From the edges I use spray glue and then staples to hang some strips of woven mat.

Here I just let it hang straight down to meet the floor, but if you were really pushing for max airspace avail you could open ur frame up a bit wider or curve the mat back under and staple it to gain a tiny bit more volume.

[LSN2meBoom916]

Then just keep adding glass layers.

After about 3-5 layers of woven mat I switch to chop mat.

Gotta get the corners

After many layers, I pull the tub, and I'm left with this.

Bottom of the tub covered in foil & tape

Start peelin off the loose craps

[LSN2meBoom916]

Gratuitous underside shots

One tub

Shot it with bedliner...for no reason at all really.

See the details of of the tire well

Then I put it back in and start throwin some serious chop mat into it.

[LSN2meBoom916]

Then I pull it again and start reinforcing it with more chop mat...overlap and overkill is good.

out in the sun

Midget test.

NOTE- I only weigh 135lb, but I am standing directly in the center to put as much stress on this as I can.

And this is all before I add any bracing.

Chop matted up

Then I start working on some 3/4" MDF bracing

Cardboard is my buddy

[LSN2meBoom916]

Doesnt have to be perfect but the closer the better

I chop the middle sections out knowing this will be one chamber and not seperate/seled sections

I leave about 2" in all directions so i have something to screw into from the underside.

Predrilled from underneath

PREDILLED.

[LSN2meBoom916]

Then I screw in the brace, and get ready to glass it in there.

Glassed in at the seams

Then this is how I check the volume of that tub.

I didn't have a box big enough so i made one/ghetto fab style.

[LSN2meBoom916]

Dump em all in the box, level it...

The you can do your easy calculations for L X H X W =xxxx inches^3....divide that by 1728 (cubic inches in 1 cubic foot) and that's your airspace in cubic feet.

Then if you want more, you can build what ever you want ABOVE floor level to add to it.

-Make a copy of the "frame" you made at 1st and use that as a "flange" to attach ur top 1/2 to ur tub and now you have gained w/e airspace was in ur spare tire well...in my case/this case it's a lil over 3cft...not a bad gain if I was trying to put something huge in there and needed all the air I could get.

Hope that clears it up for those were asking me to do this.

If need be I can elaborate on the "top half" as mentioned.

~Chris

[manueltrem]

your good in the fiberglass

[LSN2meBoom916]

your good in the fiberglass

Thanx.

I do dabble in it here and there.