I hope everyone is having a great holiday and thanks for the compliments.

V8, I'm actually sifting through old and new pictures while I'm recuperating from some more heart work. I'm trying to get everybody caught up on where the car is now. Some of these pictures I'm posting are older and some are recent. BTW - I'll be able to get back on the car next week. The heeling seems to be going well.

After the console, I moved on to the rear package tray and storage area. I started by building a simple tubing support for the center and bending some small brackets to support the ends. My first thought was to make these as one long part, but it was much easier to fit them to the curves by making each end in three pieces. The center support is heavy duty enough to allow some loading of the package tray, if needed.





A pattern for the deck itself was next. I make a lot of patterns out of Luan plywood, especially if I’m trying to bridge a gap, since it doesn’t sag.



I made the deck in two parts. I didn’t have to, but it was easier. All of the panels in this area will eventually be covered with marine carpet, so none of the seams will be visible anyhow. The front section is angled to lay on the roll hoop supports. The front edge has a small hemmed lip added for stiffening.



With the top pieces on, I was left with a nice size, hidden storage compartment. My radio and amps will eventually be mounted vertically on the rear wall. That way they won’t take up a lot of space. I will also cut out a plywood floor for this area to rest on the lower tubing frame. The area under that floor (between the top of the tubes and original fiberglass floor) can be used for small spares that I might want to carry when traveling. Things like fuses, relays and a tire plugging kit. I’m leaning toward mounting the small air compressor for the air suspension on the back wall of this area, too. That will make it easier to service than if it was under the car and protect it from road grime.



I needed a door for this area and that was mounted with a long aluminum piano hinge. The latches are some push button parts that a vender was selling at a car show. The only downside to the front mounted door is that both seats have to be leaned forward to access the storage area. The door was also a convenient place to mount a pair of marine speakers. I ripped this idea off of the Viper. It had a subwoofer mounted between the seats. Should be easy to hear them mounted there. I may mount a smallish marine sub in the center of the package tray. I haven’t made my mind up on that one yet. It depends on how the basic system sounds.





Mostly, what I see going in this storage compartment are jackets, shaving kits and maybe my C-Pap machine (can’t leave home without that). You can also see the chromed roll hoops in these pictures. Locating and cutting the holes for the center roll hoop braces was a pain. I wanted the fit to be close so that filling the gap would be easier.