We needed to move some beehives (they were occupied but we have ways of making them escape proof) using our Panda multijet. Although we have a trailer, the windblast and jolting they would have suffered meant it was better to put them in the back of the car. But the rear seat doesn't fold down flat. So I unbolted the seat back and the seat cushion, (they are easy to remove) and the floor thus exposed is sort of flattish. I then got some 25mm square steel tubing and with a MIG welder made a flat subframe that bolts onto the panda rear floor using two bolts which normally hold the seat cushion in place. It's painted with hammerite. I used some old carpet, cut to fit between the tubing to keep the road noise down as much as possible, then cut 9mm plywood to make the floor. It's in 2 sections so you can just take the back half out if you want to get at the spare wheel & jack. The wooden boards sit on the tubular subframe, and the carpet covered spare wheel. They are held in using M4 screws in tapped holes in the subframe. So we now have a flat floor, with access from tailgate or rear doors, and it can all be taken out and seat replaced as normal when needed. The bees are doing ok, and none escaped on the journey.

That looks great, a very ingenious and useful modification.

What length from seat back to hatchback did you achieve? Looks cavernous from the pictures!

It's 116cm (45 1/2") front to back, and it was made to fit with seats as far back as either of us ever wants to put them. The seat backs tilt backwards a bit though so you can't put anything tall right at the front of the floor. Plenty of room for 4 beehives though! Also, if you open rear doors you can put valuables in the rear footwells under the floor. So "chummy" can't see them.

Looks well made, fancy going into mass production?

What were the costs with insurance being accomodating, or were they fairly easy going with it?

Clever!

I love this!!!

I often wonder what i could get from freecycle in the back - this would free up more space...

good work!

I have to admit, Most Easterly, that the insurers don't know about it. I assumed that since I can just put the rear floor in when we want to move something big, and put seat back afterwards that it's not a modification, not in a permanent sense anyway. It's not in there at the moment because we have the need to carry an extra person who, unlike the bees, would be happier on a seat than the plywood floor.

pauper said:

I have to admit, Most Easterly, that the insurers don't know about it. I assumed that since I can just put the rear floor in when we want to move something big, and put seat back afterwards that it's not a modification, not in a permanent sense anyway. It's not in there at the moment because we have the need to carry an extra person who, unlike the bees, would be happier on a seat than the plywood floor.

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Its still a modification, just as temporary as changing wheels etc so It's worth checking, if you're with a decent insurance company then you should be ok I'd have thought

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Its still a modification, just as temporary as changing wheels etc so It's worth checking, if you're with a decent insurance company then you should be ok I'd have thought

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I've given Shiela's Wheels, our insurance broker, a ring about it. Shiela (who sounded lke a man to me) said they will check with the insurer themselves and let me know. Best to be sure, don't want to not be covered while thinking we are. It never occurred to me that it might affect the insurance, so thanks for pointing that out Most Easterly.

Apologies for long gap in posting, have been busy.

So, Sheila threatened to cancel our insurance cover immediately, because the car had been modified! I argued and said "but how does having a plywood floor instead of a rear seat make it a worse insurance risk?" And the reply was that it is a modification, and they will only insure the car if has not been modified. So I said "if i put the seat back again, will you carry on insuring us?" They said "Did you take the seat out or did you get a garage to do it?" So I said "this is getting silly, you trust me to take the wheels off and put them back on again but not to unbolt a back seat and put a plywood floor in in its place". "Yes, that's exactly right. If you promise to put the seat back as normal, we won't cancel your insurance policy".

So the seat was put back in as normal, but meanwhile I have asked around other insurers. Many of them ask about modifications, and in the ones we tried, our rear floor instead of rear seat, and also fitting a towbar (which we have also done) do not make any difference to the premium. So we have taken out a new insurance policy which is due to start on monday, and sheila's will end sunday night at midnight. Her final surprise to us was that even though we have 6 months left to run on the policy, the cost of cancelling it will be more than the refund we will be due. So having no insurance from sheila for 6 months will cost more than having insurance for 6 months. No doubt they warned us of this at the beginning, but it still seems a bit rich.

So be warned, modifiers, if you don't want a lot of hassles in respect of a claim I think you might need to bend over backwards to inform insurers of anything at all, however innocuous, you've done to the car. Yes, even that little Rover V8 you're thinking of using instead of the multijet....

Ouch, sounds like they've been a right pain!

Unfortunately it's how a lot of the cheaper budget insurance companies make their money. Charging more than the original term to cancel is just day light robber.

Glad you've sorted it though and didn't become a cropper in a claim situation.

We have now sold our Panda, so the rear floor described above is for sale. Have a look in the classified section on this website.