Sagging Shelf

I had a sagging Evo shelf to fix, with the carpet flapping loose. The shelf needs to be fixed before it's too late. Here's how we fixed it.

I assumed the parcel shelf support hook recoil devices would be a lovely little Italian spooling machine. It's not! It's two ribbons of elastic, like knicker elastic, with knots in the end!

The shelf consists of a moulded plastic base, two light metal

U channel bars, a sheet of cardboard, and the carpet.

The elastic ribbons run right across in the rear channel.

The channels are held in place by the cardboard sheet bonded

to the plastic base.

This shelf had bent, ripping the cardboard, bending the rear rail and delaminating the cardboard and carpet.

So I removed the shelf from the car, turned it over, placed my foot on it

and bent the bars straight. This worked, but the plastic stayed bent, as the cardboard that held it to the rails had split at the rear rail. I thought of putting a couple of screws into the rear rail, but realised that would catch on the elastic.

So I opted for a small nut and bolt, screwed through the centre of the rear rail.

I had a nice little bike rear light screw that would do the trick.

A wonky shelf

A nice little screw

I taped the elastic out of the way, drilled a hole down through the bar and the plastic then put the bolt in. Tightening the bolt pulled the plastic nicely tight up to the rail.

Not a pleasant sight!

Then it was time to glue the cardboard and carpet down.

I'd bought some spray glue for this job, so I put the elastic back in its rail, masking taped over the rail and the elastic, and masked off the outside rubber surround to protect them all from being sprayed with glue. I pulled back the cardboard and carpet and gave them a good spray. After 5 minutes I pulled off the masking tape, stuck it all down then clamped it tight.

I checked the hooks and one wouldn't pull out, bugger! So I declamped and pulled the carpet back, I stuck it and the card back down again not so tight, then used lighter clamps to grip it, this freed up the elastic.

Spray glue £2.45 at Screwfix

I left this for a while, later I removed the clamps, pulled back the outer rubber strip and squeezed some Gorilla glue down the edge, then I taped that rubber into place.

I did this to the outer, door side, and also to the seat back side where it had split.

I gave the back a good tight clamping as there is no elastic on that side.

After tea I removed all the clamps and tape, all was stuck well.

The carpet was flat, plastic straight, the hooks pulled out and returned, and the little black screw looked like a factory fit.

I gave the carpet a brushing and it all looks good.

Well clamped!

So the shelf was saved. An Evo shelf, with the spare wheel bulge, is now a rare item, heavy speakers, parcels, tartan rugs and little dogs all take their toll on this lightweight item. A little maintenace before damage becomes terminal is always a good thing.

Our man says these lightweight panels were only meant as a cover,

to hide a stack of stolen chinos from the Carabinieri !