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tldr: Has anyone built a strong shelf in the back of the Fit? Anyone know how to do it?
We got our new (to us) Fit on Friday and Saturday was the first night we slept in it! I was inspired to buy it because of all the camper conversion videos and we were planning to build a platform after trying it out for one night. But after trying it, I had a different idea and wanted to know if anyone else had done something similar or had suggestions.
We absolutely loved sleeping in it. We were worried it was going to be too scrunched up, but it wasn't bad at all. It rained while we were in the car and it was wonderful to hang out sitting in the "bed" drinking our beers and talking. I realized that if we build a platform, it will be impossible to sit in it while in camping mode. And I'm also worried about how big the setup will be. The main benefit to the platform seems to be the storage underneath and we definitely saw how that was missing! So, I had the idea of storing things above us. Ideally if we can store our stuff above our feet at the back, then we still have plenty of room to sit and hang out before sleeping.
Essentially what I am envisioning is the cover that is already on the fit to cover the cargo area, except that is not strong at all (either the bar or the plastic thing that holds the bar). If I can build something similar, but super strong, we can just use it as a shelf to shove all our stuff on, sleep with our feet underneath it and have plenty of space in the rest of the car. This could either be permanent and simply replace the cover that is there or else fold down into the trunk area when traveling. But it would have to not have legs or some sort of cross bars underneath because that is where our feet would go.
I searched, but couldn't find anything anyone has done like this. I've seen people use hamocks for this, but that needs to be further forward where the handles are and would mess with the ability to sit upright in the car. So, anyone done this? Anyone have any suggestions before I start on a project that I have no idea how to do?
I don't think you read my post. I did quite an extensive search before posting and I have never seen anyone building something similar to what I mentioned. What I need is actually closer to a magic board than any of the results of your search.
As it looks like no one else has done this or has ideas, we will probably just try and if it works I'll come back and post for posterity in case other people have similar concerns with the typical camper conversion setup.
If you're not loading a significant amount of weight, you can use the existing cargo cover 'shelf' and cut a corresponding piece of wood to fit in it. Of course you're going to eliminate the ability to see out the back for safe driving.
If you need to put a significant weight, you'll want to either put struts running down to the floor of the car. Other possible strong points to build to are the metal latches for the back seats, and the top of the rear suspension towers. It's not a common modification because most people prefer to store things under the platform, and then pile things towards the front seat. This retains visibility out the rear window, and also allows you to sit in the back hatch, which people seem to like because its like a couch with a sun shade/rain cover.
You'll have to experiment, we look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Yes I thought about using the existing shelf, but I definitely don't think it is strong enough. I'm going to need some legs to hold it up.
I'm not worried about visibility because the other goal (which I don't think I mentioned), is that I would really like to have everything fold up super small. The ideal situation for me is that I always have what I need to sleep in the car so at any point we can stay in the car comfortably. So everything would simply sit in the trunk while driving and then get moved onto the shelf while sleeping.
I think you are right that this is a bit different and maybe that is why no one else has tried it. I think other people are looking for a more luxurious setup and are less interested in the portability than me. I get how it would be nice to sit in the back. And the platforms do look comfortable. I might even consider making something like that as an alternative when I know we are going camping for awhile. But for me, I would love to have the flexibility of knowing that I always have both a car and a camper available with not much effort to switch between them.
I realized I never came back and let everyone know how it works. We built it and used it on and off for a 2 week trip as well as a few weekend trips.
Pros: Folds down to almost nothing so it can stay in the car 100% of the time for a spontaneous trip, you have full use of the rest of the car and no one can see that you will be camping in it, you have plenty of space to sit up in the car while set up, super cheap and easy to make, shelf can also be used as a camping table
Cons: Although the set up is really easy for the shelf, everything has to be moved from the trunk to the shelf/front seat every night. Which makes this really good for a single night, but it became irritating when traveling for a longer period of time and we had more stuff. We also had issues with the self inflatable mattresses dying. It might be a coincidence, but it also might have been caught on the shelf and perhaps we need another method
I think we are going to keep this for spontaneous weekend trips. It is amazing to have the ability to turn it into a camper at a moments notice. But I think we might also look at building a platform for longer trips so we can have a storage area that doesn't need to be unpacked at night.
This is what it looks like set up. Essentially it is simply three pieces of wood and a few hinges. It gives us plenty of space for our feet below and we can stuff all our things on top. It folds down really small and can stay in the trunk all the time without really taking up trunk space for other things. This is the wooden shelf and also some very thin plywood because we found that just putting it on the floor evens out the bumps which are uncomfortable to sleep on.
I was inspired to buy it because of all the camper conversion videos and we were planning to build a platform after trying it out for one night. But after trying it, I had a different idea and wanted to know if anyone else had done something similar or had suggestions. 
