I have a dodge magnum that I currently drive. I have recently installed subwoofers in the back pockets. Normally this fits a 10″ sub but I wanted a big ol 12″ non shallow in there. When I did this, I could no longer pull up the hide away trunk. I was going to have to either cut the existing carpet trunk or design something new.

Heres what the trunk looks like:

Its carpeted its nice.. but I couldnt use it without cutting into it.. so why not build something new?

I was originally looking at woodgrain, I have seen alot of people doing this.

It looks nice, but then I wanted to match the rest of the car, and I am not a big fan of the wood trim dash kits for this car.

I got to looking around for alternatives and I thought, whats tougher than diamondplate?

I headed to the store and couldnt find the size that I wanted..Eventually I found some at farm and home, of all places that would have been my last guess. Who would have known that diamondplate is so damn expensive! 2 sheets of 24″x46″ ran me 160 dollars. There was no room for mistakes here.

I also had to buy blades for my skill saw…which 2 of the 3 broke on the diamondplate.. I guess its expensive because its strong haha.

I had to buy hinges (shiney ones!) and self tapping screws for the cool look.

I started by taking the original carpet and creating a template on my 2 pieces of MDF board I got at menards.

I cut the mdf…easiest stuff to cut in the world.

I then transfered the pattern of the MDF onto the diamondplate, then cut it out with a jigsaw….holy crap was this time consuming…plus you couldnt make a mistake or the piece was scrap so this step took the longest.

I then started to add the MDF to the diamondplate. I used glue on the bottom of the plate and then around the edges I took socket style self tapping screws and screwed into the MDF for a more urban look and extra strength.

I then shoved it into the car and added the hinges and handles and this is the end result: