My escape from boot-related infections... [BUILD THREAD]

[rantingYoof]

Boot-related maladies appear to have followed me from Mason the leaky Lexus (fixed quickly by the new pro-active buyer and now much more water-tight) to my current motor, the S60 of grey repmobileness.

The previous owner had thoughtfully "spilt" something on the boot-upholstery at some point and then either not got to it in time or hadn't done a very thorough job of mopping up. This substance could have been milk, or something dairy-related, or it could have simply been puke, as it whiffed something awful. Not a smell I get on with at all, being a freaky germophobe and all-that, and it began leaking through into the cabin so I decided to investigate to see if it could be remedied.

 

Upon lifting the whole piece out of the boot I discovered mould happily festering away on the felty underside. This was jetwashed and properly drenched in various cleaning fluids, and then jetwashed again and then dried out in an outdoor temp greenhouse.

 

Unfortunately the cocktail of cleaning fluids and intense jet washing only seemed to spur the bastarding bacteria on, and before too long it was reeking even worse and the mould was positively thriving.

 

SO! How would one fix this? A Volvo parts dealer quoted £150 for a replacement part, and finding an exact copy on the Volvo forums/Pregummed/TreeLoved was difficult.

 

SnrYoof suggested that we do a custom build using a sheet of 10mm wood (which he had lying about, naturally), and then use carpet or something.

 

And so, one day when I was walking around a nearby Homebase, I spied something down the homeware aisle and became INSPIRED!

 

Ribbed for your pleasure, sir.

 

 

Came to a smidgen over £25 for four.

 

 

On Sunday just gone, we prepped a work space out of the cold in SnrYoof's utility room complete with birdseed stored in nuclear waste drums...

 

 

The wood was....there...

 

 

The original diseased offending item was retrieved for template purposes...

 

 

A noisy blue electricity-powered scary-thing was plugged in...

 

 

The wood was cut into two pieces. We used scientifically calculated balast to prevent bench and tools and me from flying around the room at the critical moment...

 

 

A template was drawn...

 

 

CHECK OUT THE SARS

 

With lines drawn...

 

Moar cutting happended...

 

Time for the first fit to see how we did...

 

A bit of overlapping. Some adjustment needed. THE FINGER POINTS...

 

A bit of trimming and rounding...

 

...and it began looking a lot better:

 

I'm sure this sawdust is PERFECTLY INHALABLE...

 

Now for STAPLING TIME!

 

Cut to size...

 

In situ...

 

And CHECK OUT MY NEW BLURRY BOOT!

 

It was originally going to be one piece that hinged in the middle. Then we determined that having two seperate pieces was probably wiser as it was quite heavy.

 

It's a very snug fit so a finishing touch is going to be installing handles that can be used to lift the bit nearest the boot lid up and out of the way to get at the battery and spare wheel.

 

SnrYoof is who you can see in the photos but I did most of the band-sawing and most of the staple-gunning. NOBODY DIED! AMAZING!

 

The whole thing was designed by SnrYoof as we went along and the tools are all his. My photograph is hanging near the checkouts with "DO NOT SELL POWERTOOLS TO THIS INDIVIDUAL" printed underneath.

 

CAN HAZ BE HAPPEH AT OVER-ENGINEERED SOLUTION!!1

[hauserplenty]

Uhh...ribbed for HER pleasure??

 

Said the bishop &c.

[beko1987]

a Vax And a dc16. top work!

[Jim Bell]

Making things is always to be applauded. So APPLAUSE