Hey Rick - I have a Manta Mirage so I'm not as familiar with the Montage layout. Also I think some have the VW power-plant and other a V6 or V8. Can you post some photos up of these areas as that would help me.
On the pictures you can see the area in front of and behind the wheels and suspension is more or less useless in the current design. For a race car that might be OK since they don't need the space. But since I am making it a good street capable car I want to find a way to use that extra space. All the area in the back where the body opens up is a nice large area that could be used as trunk space if the body was solid and just the lid opened up forward like a normal trunk lid.
Ideally I would really like to cut the top of the trunk off and make it hinge at the roll bar and have a normal trunk latch to open at the back. I just don't see a good place to make a cut to make that happen. It is pretty old fiberglass so if I cut it apart it would probably warp enough it would never fit together square again. I would also have to figure out how to fiberglass a lip on the fenders and back for the lid to close against and make it all strong enough to survive driving 20k miles a year.
The flange is not a big deal to make. But the hard part you've got to decide on is hatch configuration, hinges, latches, support, etc. These fenders have a lot of area behind each wheel that could be sealed off from the rest of the body. Cutting out two hatches (one on each side of the back rear deck should provide some amount of storage without resorting to cutting the rear window bulge or roofline that extends all the way back. Guessing from the photos that would put you at perhaps 3 or 4 ft^3 per side (good for a helmet, some lunch, and an tech inspection form Anyway, once you decide the exact shape and size of the door (lid, hatch, whatever), then making the sealing flange is easy. You may also want to determine what the thickness of the material is back there before you start. If it's thin (1/8" or so in my humble opinion), then you'll need to build it up a bit so that when you start cutting, or install some boxing panels to beef all of this up so that the body holds its shape after being weakened with the cutting. inserting bulkheads or walls to seal these new storage boxes will provide a lot of new stiffness, but you'll still need to structurally tie the two together (perhaps with a single wall or panel of fiberglass connecting the two boxes.
Anyway, once you decide the exact shape and size of the door (lid, hatch, whatever), then making the sealing flange is easy. You may also want to determine what the thickness of the material is back there before you start. If it's thin (1/8" or so in my humble opinion), then you'll need to build it up a bit so that when you start cutting, or install some boxing panels to beef all of this up so that the body holds its shape after being weakened with the cutting. inserting bulkheads or walls to seal these new storage boxes will provide a lot of new stiffness, but you'll still need to structurally tie the two together (perhaps with a single wall or panel of fiberglass connecting the two boxes.
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