Nah, didnt have to cut metal at all .. which is what i was primarily wanting to avoid, due to how close the lpg tank was to the metal of the shelf .. tight fit .. I made the custom shelf myself .. pretty simple actually, and looks damn nice, if i do say so myself
Measure the width of your old shelf, go to bunnings, get a sheet of MDF to suit, cost me about $20 i think, for 12mm thick MDF. Some people recomend 18mm for better sound resenance, but it was a fair bit more expensive when i was there, so i went with the 12mm .. no complaints about it
I used my old shelf to draw out a template, then a jigsaw to cut it out .. sand back corners where needed, and then apply carpet. I used a 2m section of bunnings Black carpet, didnt cost much either .. Jaycar had a spray on carpet adhesive glue .. stuck it all down and it was done ..
Before this of course I had to cut 4 holes in it .. 2 where the speakers mount (even with pods the 10x7's had to have some cut for them to sit into, HUGE magnets on those suckers), and 2 holes for the ports .. measured to line up over the speaker holes in the metal. Slot those in after the carpet was on and cut, attach pods and speakers, then slot back into the car .. I actually had to take the ports back out, install shelf, then re-insert the ports, because of the angle the shelf had to go into the car ..
only other problem I had was the mounting bolts .. the old shelf attached via 2 small plastic clips into bolt holes in the metal shelf. I drilled these out on the new one, but coudlnt get them to line up .. I eventually used large ammounts of double sided tape and blue-tak spots to hold the shelf tight and stop vibration, as the rear seat actually secures it in place.
