and NOW, 1966 PACKAGE TRAYS!!??

[Gerald Morris]

Greetings again,

Apropos of my previous thread, I obtained some suitable 6x9 speakers that drop neatly into the sheetmetal behind the back seat. This has become ALL the EASIER given that the 55 yr old package tray DISINTEGRATES WHEN ONE DOES MUCH TO IT!

So, I commenced searching for a replacement, but, guess what? 1965-66 package trays for 2 door C bodies seem to be on back order with boar teats, hens teeth and other bits of unobtainium.

Now I ask you, my Learned Elders, is this REALLY SO? Am I goinng to have to get some styrofoam board, mark, cut, then cover it in astroturf or some such expedient?

 

[75LandYacht]

What I’ve had to do, get a sheet of Masonite, use the old one as a template if there’s enough of it left.

 

[CBODY67]

I concur, the OEM material is more like Masonite. You can used the textured side up. Might hit it with some satin clear paint (or satin color of your choice) after it's all cut. Time for an old dry-wall "Roto-Zip" that Sears used to sell?

Then some carpet jute padding to keep it all in place. Install the speakers from the bottom, so that the panel will lay as it should, indexing with the places that it might slide into for retention. Putting some speaker cloth over the speakers (as the OEM speakers used) can offer a bit of protection of the speaker from the sun and other debris that might fall into them. I've seen some pre-cut pieces on eBay in the past, to glue on.

Enjoy!
CBODY67

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Gerald, is yours the molded type, or just a flat board?

Flat ones should be fairly easy to replicate out of the materials decribed above. Use a plunge router to cut the speaker (w/a 3/16 bit) and rear defog perforations (w/a 5/16 bit), and I bet no one will even notice!

 

[stubs300]

I just screwed my speakers in from the bottom, on every car I've ever owned! I don't see what the big deal is here? Why are you making so much work for yourself?

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

It probably fell apart when he breathed on it. They can get pretty dusty...

 

[rapidtrans]

Is it this molded style you speak of?
As far as I know there are not repopped by any one. Occasionally I see a used one for sale.
but not often in one piece.
They are very brittle and made of some magical fibrerous cardboardy material. I was fortunate to remove and repaint mine without damage. Good thing is the rear speaker is mounted from the trunk as Stubbs said.

 

[CBODY67]

Our '66 Newport CL42 had the Masonite-type material for the rear deck, with slots for the speakers (it is a factory rear speaker car). But it seems that my '67 CE23 Fastop has something akin to a heavier-gauge fine-wire mesh on the molded rear deck. Haven't had it out to see if has a backing or not. Seems like, too, that GM used a similar texture on some of their '67 Pontiac rear deck panels, too?

The '72 Newport Royal 4dr has the typical painted cardboard-type item, with jute under it.

Enjoy!
CBODY67

 

[Gerald Morris]

I just screwed my speakers in from the bottom, on every car I've ever owned! I don't see what the big deal is here? Why are you making so much work for yourself?

It fell apart when I sneezed on it. Tom cat piss, Arizona sunshine, winter freezing all combined to destroy the exposed green Naugahyde, thin masonite beneath that and the glue that once held it all together. I never concerned myself about this until one evening, when taking the family to church, a female cat poked her head through a speakerhole and the covering decayed stratum. The miserable ***** had nested in the trunk while I was working on the car earlier that day. After that incident, I knew the package tray persisted only by Newton's First Law. (inertia)

 

[Gerald Morris]

Our '66 Newport CL42 had the Masonite-type material for the rear deck, with slots for the speakers (it is a factory rear speaker car). But it seems that my '67 CE23 Fastop has something akin to a heavier-gauge fine-wire mesh on the molded rear deck. Haven't had it out to see if has a backing or not. Seems like, too, that GM used a similar texture on some of their '67 Pontiac rear deck panels, too?

The '72 Newport Royal 4dr has the typical painted cardboard-type item, with jute under it.

Enjoy!
CBODY67

I was just thinking of getting some masonite for this little job! Great Minds....

 

[Gerald Morris]

View attachment 452648
Is it this molded style you speak of?
As far as I know there are not repopped by any one. Occasionally I see a used one for sale.
but not often in one piece.
They are very brittle and made of some magical fibrerous cardboardy material. I was fortunate to remove and repaint mine without damage. Good thing is the rear speaker is mounted from the trunk as Stubbs said.

Oh I KNOW where the speakers mount, thanks to the damned minny-cat aforementioned. On the 65-66 models, it appears they all got a thin Naugahyde-Masonite sandwich to cover the sheet metal. Its a pity about the lack of re-pops, as there are plenty for the earlier and later years! I( reckon I'll just go forth, slay a Naugha, then stretch some of its hide on a board, cure it, then staple and glue it down to some masonite cut to purpose. I have a VERY SMALL high speed table saw, a similar band saw, a dremel, and full sized power tools with which I can fashion stuff like this. While this little chore doesn't improve vehicle safety or performance, its been overdue for long years....

 

[Gerald Morris]

What I’ve had to do, get a sheet of Masonite, use the old one as a template if there’s enough of it left.

The old stuff disintegrated in situ,

and comes out with my shop vac. No matter. I can use cardboard for making a template, and my geometry is good. I had actually cut a decent replacement lens out of red acrylic for a tail light before scoring some good ones from one of our fellows here, God bless him!

 

[Gerald Morris]

Gerald, is yours the molded type, or just a flat board?

Flat ones should be fairly easy to replicate out of the materials decribed above. Use a plunge router to cut the speaker (w/a 3/16 bit) and rear defog perforations (w/a 5/16 bit), and I bet no one will even notice!

Its the flat board sort. Easy enough to replicate. That may well be why nobody bothers to re-pop them.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Exactly - you can do it yourself so much more cheaply.

 

[jollyjoker]

View attachment 452648
Is it this molded style you speak of?
As far as I know there are not repopped by any one. Occasionally I see a used one for sale.
but not often in one piece.
They are very brittle and made of some magical fibrerous cardboardy material. I was fortunate to remove and repaint mine without damage. Good thing is the rear speaker is mounted from the trunk as Stubbs said.

FYI . . . these shroud-style "molded" package trays came in two styles - the pressed fiberboard type, and a fiberglass type. I concur, the fiberboard type will turn to dust if you look at it wrong, but they CAN be repaired if you're VERY careful, and it's not too far gone to begin with. The fiberglass ones are far more durable, and do turn up from time to time. Neither is reproduced to me knowledge, and I'm guessing they never will be . . .
I believe that fiberboard was used in early cars, and then transitioned to fiberglass style, either late in the 65 MY, or early in the 66 MY run.

 

[69bfan]

Does REM not make them for the needed 65-66 application?

 

[Gerald Morris]

Does REM not make them for the needed 65-66 application?

IDK who REM is, but my Google search algorithms being WELL TUNED to my habitual searching for slab side C-body Mopar parts, turns up ALL KINDS OF SOURCES, to a degree that often gets me deals that surprise even my Most Esteemed Elder Moparians here. When I get NADA, that means NADA UNOBTAINIUM is the state of that search, 95% of the time.

If somebody actually MAKES REPLACEMENT PACKAGE TRAYS for the 1965-66 Chryslers, I'll be delighted to check them out, and likely give them business. While I'm CAPABLE of making a good naugahyde masonite board, and have already ordered a couple yards of green naugahyde for ~$10 to do just this, I still would prefer to spend my shop time working on Mathilda's actual suspension and drivetrain.

 

[Gerald Morris]

FYI . . . these shroud-style "molded" package trays came in two styles - the pressed fiberboard type, and a fiberglass type. I concur, the fiberboard type will turn to dust if you look at it wrong, but they CAN be repaired if you're VERY careful, and it's not too far gone to begin with. The fiberglass ones are far more durable, and do turn up from time to time. Neither is reproduced to me knowledge, and I'm guessing they never will be . . .
I believe that fiberboard was used in early cars, and then transitioned to fiberglass style, either late in the 65 MY, or early in the 66 MY run.

No doubt fiberglass is more durable than a layered board consisting of some THIN masonite (or the like) on the bottom, a thinn layer of foam rubber padding, then naugahyde. I must say, the naugahyde still looked fine where it had been rolled under the top of the rear bench seat, thus keeping it completely in the dark. I also discovered, once I progressed some in cleaning up the decayed mess up top, that my rear window isn't original to the car. Some time over the past 55 years, the rear window had to be replaced. The shoddy work on this doubtless exacerbated other weathering. I just thank the Lord that the damage stopped there. I suspect this work to be at least 30 yrs old.

There are other telltales of a rear-end collision from long ago. No complaint with this, given how for an initial net expense of $1250.00 I was able to drive home a 1966 Chrysler Newport with a good running engine in a still straight body. We've driven this car on average 6 days out of 7 for over 5 years since then. That's a hell of a good bargain, even with the upkeep and occasional restorative work. Knowing I could probably do just as I have was what strongly motivated my purchase back in March 2016!

Having driven MANY various cars since 1977, I consider the 1966 Mopar C body to be the all time apex of Detroit's quality. There have been other peaks from 1920-1979, but after that, its been just a sorry slide down, despite occasional small peaks in that part of the curve. Permitting foreign corporations to obtain what once had been maker of the Armed Forces main battle tank, among numerous other military vehicles betrays where much, but by no means ALL the culpability lies.....

 

[haywire 440]

Here is a fiberglass package tray I just retrieved from my Arkansas stash. It is already spoken for, sorry, but I was reading your post with interest in learning what is hard to find, not being reproduced, etc. It makes me wonder how hard it would be to make a mold? Any ideas?

 

[saforwardlook]

I thought Bob Baker of ABC Moparts used to reproduce these molded package trays for the 1965-6 models but I am not seeing them in his catalog anymore. I will have to check with him to see whether I was just wishing or he really did for a time - he may be the victim of not enough buyers to make it worth his while.................and that remains a risk for us on other parts we take for granted until it is too late..........................

In the meantime, Legendary seems to reproduce at least some of the package trays for these models:

Here is a sample of what they offer in their PDF Chrysler catalog available online for Plymouth and Dodge models but Chrysler models might be the same?? (page A109):

1965 Fury I & Fury II Sedan w/o Cuts PT65CF(C)N..........................................$61.00/ea. PT65CF1J (jute insulation)....................$24.00/ea.
1965-66 Polara & Fury Hardtop w/ Cuts PT65CFP(C)N (Hardtop w/o cuts).........$61.00/ea. PT65CFP(C)W (Hardtop w/ cuts)..........$97.00/ea. PT65CFPJ (jute insulation) ...................$24.00/ea.
1967-68 Fury III PT67CF(C)N (Hardtop w/o cuts) ...........$61.00/ea. PT67CF(C)W (Hardtop w/ cuts) ............$97.00/ea. PT67CFJ (jute insulation)......................$24.00/ea. 1968 Fury III PT68CF2D(C)W (Fastop w/ cuts)..........$97.00/ea. PT68CF2DJ (jute insulation)................$24.00/ea. 1971 Sport Fury PT71CF00(C)N (Hardtop w/o cuts).......$61.00/ea. PT71CF00(C)W (HTP w/ dfst & cuts)....$97.00/ea. PT71CF00(C)WN (HTP no dfrst w/ cuts)...$97.00/ea. PT71CFJ (jute insulation)......................$24.00/ea.
C-BODY MODELS +

I am not sure what the last line "C-BODY MODELS+" means??