July 2008

Boot Box Mk2

Well the roll bar was now fitted but this left me with another problem - I had previously fitted a boot box for storage in the back of the car. However with the bars needed for the rollbar this would no longer fit. In addition to this the lid wasn't any good either as the holes for the drop links got in the way.

The top cover was fairly easy - I had Laura at Tiger make me one designed to go around the drop links (again she has the template so can make one for you).

Fitting it however was going to be interesting - as I planned to make another boot box the tonneau would have to act as the box lid - however with the normal press studs you would have to remove the tonneau before fitting the hood and the first time you went over a bump.... Time for a rethink checking the Woolies catalogue I found some double depth turnbuckle fasteners which should handle both tonneau and hood. I also found some eyelets to stop the harness bolts tearing the material as well.

The turnbuckles were fitted to the bodyshell and then the holes made / enlarged in the top pieces of material to suit allowing the top to co-exist easily (apart from the buckles being a bit stiff at the moment....)

The bootbox was another matter - after some trial and error I eventually made a box from thin alloy sheet and got the corners welded ( if you are doing this use at least 1.2mm sheet or the welders get annoyed). This was then final trimmed to fit the car.

Now then an aluminium box + some metal tools = loads of unwanted noise. So I needed to line the box - after some experimentation I hit on the idea of make foam backed leathercloth - I made one section for each side and stuck 1/4" foam to the back leaving a small gap at the top of each piece for a fold over seam - these were then stuck to the box with carpet tile adhesive. Writing this up now makes it look like a simple job but it has actually taken 2 days to do the above!