Steve F
Adventurer
With a trip to Cape York (Most Northern tip of Australia and around 4500km from home) in Septemeber I decided redo the storage in the XJ. The main reason was I wanted a cargo barrier as my 2 year old daughter will be coming along and secondly just to tidy things up.
First I mounted up a cargo barrier I had from a Magna wagon, it was given to me years ago and I'd been meaning to fit it for ages as its a good fit. At the same time I made a 15mm thick ply floor as the base for the rear draws and for the fridge slide to attach to. This will get bolted down when I'm done.
Next I made some sides, supports for the top and cut the top section. Again all 15mm, it's external hardwood ply with a BB finish (Ply is rated A best to D worst quality wise, BB means both sides of the ply are a B finish), very strong and nice and smooth.
I decided to go with one deep draw, two draws is nice bt they wont be that deep and that would also mean more weight, cost and less useable space. The draw itself will have slots for dividers in it that will be removable and repositionable for the best packing of whatever I take.
I also had the passenger side upright moved away from the wheel arch a little so that area was a bit bigger and can be used, it's a bit small otherwise and not very practical. The top will have a removable lid for access to it.
Tools, oil, recovery gear will fit in here with the little extra space I left.
Due to the slope of the rear seat there is an odd angle at the back of the draw, rather than just loose that space I will extend the draw base to the cargo barrier and mount the compressor and first aid kit back there, they will slide out when the draw is pulled out but will be outside the rear of the draw if that makes sense. I'll also run power back there for the compressor and possible an invertor if needed.
With the base off the compressor it just fits in the angled section behind the draw.
Since the draw has to be raised up a little to clear the rear plastic surround around the hatch striker I'm going to use the space to slide in a thin table top, this will pull out and mount on top of the draw when it is out to make a table, I'll embed some rare earth magnets in it and the top of the draw sides so when it sits on the draw it wont slip off. I'll also use them to attach it to the floor for travelling.
Anyway, hope that all makes sense. More pics when I have the draw sorted.
Cheers
Steve
First I mounted up a cargo barrier I had from a Magna wagon, it was given to me years ago and I'd been meaning to fit it for ages as its a good fit. At the same time I made a 15mm thick ply floor as the base for the rear draws and for the fridge slide to attach to. This will get bolted down when I'm done.
Next I made some sides, supports for the top and cut the top section. Again all 15mm, it's external hardwood ply with a BB finish (Ply is rated A best to D worst quality wise, BB means both sides of the ply are a B finish), very strong and nice and smooth.
I decided to go with one deep draw, two draws is nice bt they wont be that deep and that would also mean more weight, cost and less useable space. The draw itself will have slots for dividers in it that will be removable and repositionable for the best packing of whatever I take.
I also had the passenger side upright moved away from the wheel arch a little so that area was a bit bigger and can be used, it's a bit small otherwise and not very practical. The top will have a removable lid for access to it.
Tools, oil, recovery gear will fit in here with the little extra space I left.
Due to the slope of the rear seat there is an odd angle at the back of the draw, rather than just loose that space I will extend the draw base to the cargo barrier and mount the compressor and first aid kit back there, they will slide out when the draw is pulled out but will be outside the rear of the draw if that makes sense. I'll also run power back there for the compressor and possible an invertor if needed.
With the base off the compressor it just fits in the angled section behind the draw.
Since the draw has to be raised up a little to clear the rear plastic surround around the hatch striker I'm going to use the space to slide in a thin table top, this will pull out and mount on top of the draw when it is out to make a table, I'll embed some rare earth magnets in it and the top of the draw sides so when it sits on the draw it wont slip off. I'll also use them to attach it to the floor for travelling.
Anyway, hope that all makes sense. More pics when I have the draw sorted.
Cheers
Steve
Then carpet tomorrow after a bit of epoxy on a couple of the joints to fill a gap or two 
