Had a chance to deal with the rear parcel shelf the other day. The original elastic cords located inside the parcel shelf have perished and are no longer pulling the cords. So for those who are contemplating the same thing here’s a guide how to replace the worn out elastic cords.
To fix this I bought about 2meters of new elastic cord from a haberdashery shop for a couple of bucks, a small pack of shoelace aglets from eBay for a few bucks, and 1meter length of 10mm heat shrink tubing (I’ll explain later).
Removing the original elastic cords is relatively simple. First, flip the parcel shelf and remove the metal channel from the runner with it’s 3 screws. Next, carefully remove the plastic retainer clips on each end that the cord slips through. Next, pull out the plastic ends from the parcel shelf housing. When you pull them out and open it up you’ll see how the elastic cords are connected and crimped with aglets.
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Remove-cut the old elastic cords and cut the new elastic cords to be about 3/4 length of the parcel shelf runner. Attach the aglets in the same fashion as the original ones. The only thing I changed was to tie a small knot on the end of the new elastic cord that gets secured inside the plastic end instead of attaching an aglet (pic showing the original elastic cord).
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You’ll need to feed both new elastic cords at the same time. I used a wire coat hanger which I straightened and attached the new cords to one end. The problem I then faced when I kept trying to feed the wire through the metal runner was that the elastic cords kept snagging little burrs along the inside of the runner. It was obvious the inside of the metal runner/tube was very rough. Definitely not ideal! After some head scratching I came up with a super easy fix. Insert the 10mm heat shrink tubing inside the runner and cut off the excess. This provides a smooth shield for the elastic cords to slide against inside the runner. Now feed the coat hanger wire through and attach the ends of the elastic cords.
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As the new cords will be shorter than the runner/tube be sure not to let go whilst tying it all in as it will fling back deep inside the runner, and you might have to re feed the elastic cord again.
