Ka Sport to Van Conversion DIY 1996-2008

[Mr Twitch]

I thought I would post this for anyone who uses their beloved Ka as a mini van, whether you're a tradesman, fisherman, courier etc. Its a cheap 'n' cheerful solution and a bit of fun too.

I'm a courier and have been using my Ka for small parcel deliveries for some time with the seats folded down but this wasn't always ideal for larger or heavier parcels.

So I designed what I call a 'super parcel shelf' for my parcels.......

You will need the following hardware:

2m x 1m car carpet, available on eBay in various colours. I also had a square meter of underlay kicking about so i used that too although not necessary.

Tin of spray carpet glue (mine came with the carpet for £2 more)

M12 x 60mm bolt and nut with 2 washers. M10 would probably do but I had the M12 left over from a previous job.

A 3-pack of loft boards.(1200mm x 325mm x 18mm per board) I got mine from B&Q for £9 for the three. You could actually use any boarding around 20mm thick but i found this the cheapest and easy to work with without too much cutting.

A couple of bits of batton. This is to hold the boards together. One piece needs to be 50mm x 50mm x 850mm to level the boarding where the other just needs to be 850mm x 25mm x 25mm approx.

6 wood screws approx 30mm long.

Tools Required:

Torx sockets. Sizes vary from T30 upwards.

Wood saw (battery, electric or hand)

Drill and Bit 12.5mm or similar if using a smaller retaining bolt.

Screwdrivers, utility knife and basic tool box tools.

 

Assembly instructions:

Clear the rear of the car completely. Remove the parcel shelf first, then the boot compartment carpet.Then remove the rear seats. Fold the seats flat and remove all bolts. These are a firstly a handful of torx bolts holding the padded part to the retaining brackets. These undo quite easily. Then in the rear footwells there are 2 screws holding the front of the bottom of the seats to the subframe. Remove these. You can now remove the seats. The bottom part has a square hook holding it on a lip on the subframe. Pull and lift to unhook it. There's a knack to it but it'll come. At the same time push the rear seatbelts through the hole they come through so you can lift the bottom part out. You should now just be left with a bracket by each rear seat belt and the lap belts in the centre. These are a large torx bolt and as they go through the subframe are quite stiff to remove. I left the outer brackets in place just in case I want to sell-on the car and refit the seats so I just folded the bracket out of the way. I removed the two bolts holding the lap belt bracket in place and removed the fitting. I then screwed the same bolts back where they came from to avoid any rain etc getting in the back from the underneath of the car. I then removed the carpet pieces covering the rear shock mounts. You could leave these in but I preferred them removed as the bare painted metalwork matched my new carpet better. You should now end up with a bare but clear compartment as pictured in PIC1.

Next step is to make the retaining bolt hole. This is just a simple nut and bolt fitting to hold the shelf in place so it doesn't shunt forward/backwards when driving. Using a 6mm drill bit first, I made a pilot hole in the centre of the floor pan just in front of the lap belt bolts that were put back in. This is on the level part of the compartment. Then I drilled out using a 12.5mm HSS drill bit. You can see the hole in the centre of PIC1 and in PIC2.

Next part is the designing of the shelf itself. Unpack your loft boards and lay these on a clear level ground and slot together. Make sure they are all square. Then measure the distance between the two rear shock mounts. Measure along the floor pan and not the tops as these incline slightly inwards. Mine measured around 920mm. Then measure across your laid out boards to 10mm less than that measurement not including the tounge of the left of your three boards. This to allow a little bit of movement to fit and the overlap of the carpet once glued on. So mine was 910mm and so mark this down the length of the board. Then cut the tounge off the left board and the surplus you have marked off on the outer right board. Leave the centre board as it is. You now have your three boards cut and ready to fit.

Firstly, get your 50mm x 50mm x 850mm batton and lay this on the upper part of the floorpan behing the front seats so it just sits on the carpet. This will level your shelf as it is lower than the rest of the pan.Then get your other piece of your batton and lay this on the floorpan right near the tailgate latch. Then get your cut boards and lay these on the batons and slot together. Adjust all boarding positions so that everything is square and the battons are not showing. When you're happy with the positioning, screw the boards to the battons by placing a screw in the centre of each board at both ends. You may think this would be better done outside of the car but I found that the floorpan design is not even on both sides by the rear light fittings so the batton gets in the way if fitted square.

You now need to drill through your new shelf for the retaining bolt prior to fitting the carpet. This is best done from underneath as it is impossible to measure where the hole is with the boarding in place. Somewhere behind the spare wheel looking towards the centre of the car, you will see where you replaced the lap belt bolts and hopefully the 12.5mm hole you drilled. Using a drill, either drill through your boards from underneath or if you don't have anyone to hold the shelf in place or the space whilst you drill, simply mark it with a drill so you can continue with the shelf removed.

So remove the shelf completely and continue to drill right through your boards using the mark you made. You show now end up with a shelf like in PIC3.

The boarding is now ready for carpeting. You may need a hand with this to stop glue getting everywhere and ruining your new carpet. Spray a covering of glue all over the topside of the shelf. (I glued on some underlay prior to this but not really necessary). Then lay out your new carpet wrong side upwards making sure it is perfectly flat and give this a coating of the spray glue too. Wait a couple of minutes for the glue to evaporate on both parts. Then get someone to hold one end of the shelf while you get the other and place it into the centre of the laid out carpet, obviously with the batton upwards.Press down firmly. Then spray some more glue round the complete edges of the shelf and excess carpet that is laid out. Wait two more minutes. Then kneeling on the centre of the shelf, pull tight the carpet overlaps and stick it to the shelf. It might not be even as it will only stretch on the sections you have pulled but work your way along all the edges at section at a time. You may have to cut around the battons and corners to get a neat fit but you can work round this as you see fit.

The shelf is now ready for fixing in. Find the hole you have drilled in the boards and pierce it with a knife or sharp screwdriver from the topside as the carpet will stretch if you do it from the underside. Place your shelf back in the car square and where it needs to be. Using a screwdriver, poke it through the hole you pierced and align it with the hole you made in the floor pan. This helps you line up the holes. Then remove the screwdriver and get your 60mm bolt and one washer. Poke this through the hole so that it goes through your shelf and through the drilled hole in the floorpan. Get underneath the car and with your other washer and nut, fit them. You may need someone to hold the bolt head tight with a spanner whilst you tighten up the nut underneath. Don't overtighten as it'll just pull the chipboard through.

TA DA! One super parcel shelf fitted and ready for work..........See PIC4.

This is by no means the most professionally fitted conversion but for around £25 and a couple of hours work, it makes a nice sturdy platform for tools, fishing equipment etc. You may have to let your insurance company know as it is a 'modification' which I did but they just classed it as 'rear seats removed' and made no difference in premium as I assume there is less risk of personal injury in an accident as they will never be any rear passengers. You could even fit rear sun blinds which will black out prying eyes when parked but as mine has privacy glass fitted in the rear there was no need for me to buy those.

Please let me know and post any pictures should anyone on this forum undertake this project as it will be good to see others.

Have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr Twitch]

[Mr Twitch]

[Mr Twitch]

[Mr Twitch]